


Detained

by WriteandRoller00



Series: Detained [1]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Physical Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, happens in between the first and second moives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-03-05 05:12:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 41
Words: 121,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13380885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriteandRoller00/pseuds/WriteandRoller00
Summary: After the failed attempt at obtaining the All Spark and the fall of Megatron, Barricade is having second thoughts on being part of Starscream's revenge plot. Unfortunately, insubordination does not end well for most Decepticons. Beaten, bleeding out and nearly in statis, Barricade accepts the fact that he might die in a junkyard.Dorothy Haven didn't know if her chief hated her or seemed to think she would want to give up her old police cruiser for a new one. And when said boss gives her a totaled police car as her new vehicle, she really starts having regrets. Luckily for her, Dorothy's new police car was going to be her biggest problem yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy!

"Mornin' boys!"

Dorothy peeked out from underneath the Dodge Charger she was working on her gave a mock salute to Chief Mars of the Phoenix Police Station as he walked into the F1 Squadron hangar. He was wearing his usual leather vest with his badge pinned over where his heart was, a pair of blue jeans and a brown pair of leather boots that seemed to always make a pinging noise when he didn't even have any spurs on them. Sometimes the woman would joke about putting a hat on him so he would look like a sheriff, but the old man refused the offer multiple times.

Dorothy, herself, was wearing a onepiece jumpsuit. Not the most stylish thing, but it kept the grease and mud off of her uniform. When she first started fixing her cruiser in the hangar, she immediately asked one of the members of the F1 Squad for one of their old jumpsuit since she didn't want to risk her clothes being ruined by excess car fluids. The side effect of doing that though was that the jumpsuit was way too big for the 5'3" woman. Most of the men on the team were 5'10" to 6'4", meaning that she was the shortest person in the hangar all the time.

But another day, another part to her patrol car she needed to either fix, replace, or recalibrate. Dorothy rolled back under her Charger as the chief go around and say his personal good-mornings to everyone. She grabbed the last of the oil-slicked bots and placed it over the hole that it originally sat in to hold the car's undercarriage. The woman grabbed the wrench laying next to her and tightens in the bolt she was holding.

"What'd you break thing time?" the chief said as he bent down to look under the car's bummer. "Or what this more plating scuffs and dents?"

Dorothy pushed herself out on the creeper she was laying on and sat up when the board was full out from under the Charger. "Blew another gasket." she said simply, reaching for the rag in her back pocket as she stood up. She cleaned her hands of the grease and oil on them and then did the same to her face, which was covered slightly in dust and a few specks of mud.

"This is the sixth time this month." Chief Mars complained, looking at the young woman with a concerned look. "Are you sure it's just a gasket?"

"I've checked it more and three time already, so yeah, I'm pretty sure." the woman answered back, running a hand through her pixie-styled haircut. Her short brunette locks lopped to one side of her head along her part and the woman ruffled it for some volume. "Also my car is only two years old. Had it since I started to force and I'm not getting rid of it."

"Two years is a long time for a police car." the chief explained, leaning against the front Dorothy's car as she moved to the side to pick the cup of coffee on the file toolbox she had placed her tools in. "Especially with your field of work, 'Speedy'."

The petite woman groaned at the nickname. Being the volunteer mechanic of the F-1 team and a full-time highway patrol officer for the Phoenix Police Department earned her the embarrassing nickname of "Speedy" after she broke the record for "Time Taken to Win a Car Chase". The nickname was mostly used by the F1 team members and Chief Mars, but people who knew her around town would call out the name once and awhile.

"I'm not getting rid of my car, Mars." she argued, taking a sip of her coffee before unzipping the top of her jumpsuit to that she could let her upper half breathe in the heat of the hangar. The black tank top luckily didn't show how much she was sweating, but since this year's summer was being overly hot and dry. "End of story."

"Well don't come to me when you break down on the side of the road because of a blown gasket." he joked with her, playing off of the information she had giving him earlier.

"I'm not going to." Dorothy pushed as she walked over to the locker behind her car that had her name bolted on. The name was made out of a bunch of license plate pieces, spelling out "Haven" in all caps across the locker. She opened the door, which didn't have a lock, and pulled out her duffle bag full of her casual clothes. Today was the patrol officer's day off, since most police officers in her department were off on Thursdays, and she had plans to go stay inside and out of the heat.

"Well if you are leaving so soon, I think the boys want to at least say 'Happy Birthday' before you drive off." the chief stated, looking over his shoulder at the group of men standing by the rec table and seemed to be hiding something behind their backs.

Dorothy forgot that her birthday was on a Friday this year, and almost completely forgot about his birthday in general. She never really had a huge party or anything anymore, so she never really kept it in her mind all the time. Most of the time, people at the main station would wish her a quick "Happy Birthday" and then be on their way. But the F1 team always made a big deal out of them to show the woman how thankful they were to have Dorothy fixing their cars and not needing to hire a mechanic instead.

"You lot are a bunch of idiots, you know that right?" she called over at them, smiling and placing her hands on her hip. "I don't need you throwing me a party."

The boys, Michael, Connor, Aaron, and Ethan, let out a collective chuckle at the small woman walked over to the table. Dorothy was unsure what this had in store for her thing year, since last year was met with a cake and a bunch of giftcards to her favorite dine-in movie theatre. It was her first year on the force and her first year helping the F1 with their cars. So the boys decided to through the woman a proper birthday.

"We're not, Dorothy." Aaron spoke up, a smirk covering his face. "We just wanted to give you your present before the Queen of the Highway shows up."

The Queen of the Highway, or Ms. Mayrin Walker, was the captain of the F1 team and had a one-sided rivalry with Dorothy for some reason. The team hated how the older woman treated the volunteer mechanic most of the time, being how she would kick the female officer out of the hangar for "hovering" over her and also remarking on how the repairs were never done right. It didn't bother Dorothy that much at first, but after hearing her obnoxious ridicules everyday started to make her rethink a lot.

"She takes too long in the morning to show up for roll-call." Dorothy dismissed the team's worried thoughts. "I doubt she'd ever be here this early in the morning."

The boys laughed, knowing what she said was true. "In all seriousness though, we wanted to thank you again for being our mechanic so we don't have to hire one." Connor, one of the older men on the team spoke up. "So we all chipped in and bought you a little something to remember us by."

Michael removed the box out from behind his back and held it out for Dorothy to take. She gasped sarcastically as her tried to act surprised that the boys would do this for her. The box was more wide than tall, but made a rectangle shape. The woman did the usual shake to see if she could guess what gift they bought her this year. The thing inside was solid and not a bunch of pieces, so she crossed giftcards off her mental list.

Dorothy opened the box and froze when she saw her gift. It was a picture of all of them, excluding Ms. Highway Queen, after a charity race they did a few months prior. Dorothy, who was standing in the middle of all of the members of the team, had red, gold and blue war paint across her cheeks and was wearing her oversized jumpsuit. The colors represented Arizona's flag and the upper part of her suit was unzipped, like it was now, and tied around her waist as the boys had pulled her into a group hug after they won the case prize, which went towards cancer research.

"You guys..." Dorothy said, breathlessly. She had a stupid smile plastered on her face as she looked up at them. "You're all idiots. You're gonna make me start to cry. Come here!" The small woman rushed forward and pulled the four drivers into a tight hug and squeezed tighter when they hugged her back.

"You still have my present." Chief Mars finally spoke up as he interrupted the touching moment the F1 team was having with their friend.

"You got me something, too?" Dorothy asked, trying to give the most annoyed face she could without breaking out into smiles. "Would you not spend money on me please?"

"You deserve it, kid." the chief briefly explained. "But you'll have to get it on your actual birthday."

"Ooo, the tense is killing me." the woman exclaimed, pulling out from under the ten arms that were hugging her and moved back to her patrol car. She grabbed her duffle bag, stuffed the framed photo into it and placing it in the back seat when she opened the back left door. She then opened the driver's side door and hopped into her seat. Taking out her keys, she started up the Charger without fail and pulled forwards towards the open hangar door. "See you guys later." she called as she drove out off the hangar and out to the main road.

Dorothy was relieved to finally be out of the hot hangar and in her air-conditioned car and drive home. She couldn't wait to find out what Chief Mars' present would be.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

_Two days prior to Thursday..._

_::Stasis lock iminate in four days. Please seek medical assistance.::_

Barricade nearly panicked when he read that, jumping at the message flashed across his HUD. He groaned as he felt another surge of pain rip through his circuits and his intakes hitched for a second as he was trying to register the pain. The police car sat completely still as he let the pain pass, as he had done multiple times in the last few days. He could feel where the plating around his spark chamber was dented in on itself, and winced as he felt another wave of pain hit him.

His neon pink energon was leaking out of tears in his plating, spilling onto the ground around him and creating a puddle. He shifted as gently as he could, trying to find a more comfortable position than which he was currently in. His servos were tied above his helm and chain to the rock wall that he was laying against. His slightly dented helm was slumped forward as he was too exhausted to pick it up.

And all of this was Starscream's doing.

Barricade remembered their brief argument that lead him to be chained up in the Decepticons' makeshift brig and labeled as a traitor. The Mustang was afraid to admit that the F-22 fighter jet had finally lost it. After the fall of Megatron and the Allspark being destroyed, the second lieutenant to his chance to persuade the rest of the Decepticons offworld that he would take command of the faction.

Surprisingly, the mech succeed. Most of the Decepticons were under Starscream's command and listening to his every word was they await the return of the true leader. The only other person that had not been taken in by the jet's lies were Soundwave. Barricade was unsurprised by that fact, being that the communications master never like Starscream in the first place. Of course, Barricade was the one who made the stupid decision to speak out against him publicly.

Thundering footsteps could be heard from the end of the cave as the jet-in-question made his appearance. "My, my, my, Barricade." the flier mused, moving closer to see all the damage that he had inflicted on the mech. "You seem to be in not the best of conditions."

"Go...frag...yourself." the police car hissed at Starscream, struggling to keep his voice box from fizzling out on him.

The jet growled and forced his pede down on the mech's leg, making Barricade cried out in pain as the pain he was already was feeling intensified. The police car made a small whimpering noise as he felt his leg go numb with pain and the rest of his frame start to tense. "For someone who's been beaten senseless, you sure do have a lot to say. Maybe I should make you match your yellow rival and silence you forever."

Barricade shivered at the thought of his voice box being ripped out and forced down to the same helplessness as the Autobot scout. He felt Starscream move closer and hover over that mech, supposedly waiting for a snarky reply that never came. The jet grinned widely as he triumphantly seemed to make the young mech keep his mouth shut for once. He moved his servo forward and lift up the mech's helm with one claw. Barricade felt his optics start to focus on the grinning jet and struggled to look away.

"Insubordination is not taken lightly amongst the Decepticons, Barricade." Starscream started to explain whimsically. "Mechs will start to think against me and I don't need you to ruin my parade, as humans would say. To put it simply, I need you out of the way to my plans can succeed."

Barricade chuckled roughly, as he felt his voice box start to fill with static and white noise. "You would know...all about...insubordination...wouldn't you, Starscream?" he spat at the jet, focusing his helm out the jet's grasp.

The silver filer became enraged at that point, pressing harder down on Barricade's leg and slashing his long claws across the side of the police car's helm. Barricade grunted, trying to keep from crying out again, but another small whimper escaped. Starscream couldn't help but laugh at the young bot's weakness and the amount of patheticness he was showing right now.

 _::Stasis lock iminate in 3 days and 11 hours. Please seek medical assistance.::_ the message flashed across his HUD and Barricade wince on how it hadn't even been ten minutes and his life had started to drain faster.

"That seems like a problem." the silver jet mused, seeing the message read out in his scanners. "Maybe if you were more obedient, then I could have sent Hook to do some repairs."

Barricade just growled at the jet, his optics growing hazed again as his processor was trying to deal with the loss of energon. He wanted to yell every curse he knew that the lieutenant, but he couldn't risk being anymore damaged as he was. Starscream could do this all day, but he couldn't. The police car slumped against the cave wall behind him in defeat as he felt more energon dipped down the sides on his frame and now down the side of his face. The sirens on his back were broken, the bio lights shattered from when Starscream had slammed him against the wall. The glass dug into his cabling, scraping rips in his fuel lines and causing him more pain as he moved.

"Nothing left to say?" the jet said, grabbing the mech's helm to make him optic-level with him. The silver mech laughed as Barricade stayed silent and looked down at the pink-brown mud below his frame. "How about this. You pledge your loyalty to me and I won't carry out in desposing you. I'll even let Hook visit and fix some of your broken plating."

With his death clock still counting, the offer was tempting. But in the back of his mind, Barricade couldn't let the jet persuade him into anything. The Decepticons were loyal to Megatron and no one else. The mech brought his optics back up to look at the red, glowing optics in front of him. "Over...my...sparkless...husk." he growled out.

The flier stared at him for a moment before backing away. The cheshire grin was still plastered on his face, but the whole room felt more and more dangerous as the het stood at the face corner of the cave. All that Barricade could do was stare at the mech in confusion before volts of electricity were pumped through him and he screamed out in agony. After a few seconds, the volts stopped, leaving Barricade's frame smoking and slumping forwards.

"He seems aggressive." the black and white Decepticon heard the voice of Thundercracker from behind. Of course Starscream would call his trinemates to help him with a murder. "He would be good in the ranks."

"I don't need young mechs that can't follow my commands in my army, TC." the jet argued., motioning for his other trinemate, Skywarp to shock the mech again. The other jet did and Barricade couldn't help but scream out in pain.

_::Stasis lock iminate in 3 days and 10 hours. Please seek medical assistance.::_

Starscream started laughing maniacally as Barricade fell forward and was held slightly upward by the chains around his arms and servos. There was so much pain that the black and white mech couldn't think straight and started trying to struggle out of the chains. His already cut servos joints started to burn more as the friction sliced the chains into his plating.

"Well it seems Barricade has come to his last days." Starscream remarked, walking back over to look at the now crippled mech. "Skywarp, teleport the traitor somewhere near California. Let's hope the Autobots take pity on him before his spark extinguishes. Those I know that won't be likely."

Skywrap gave a nod and warped himself and Barricade, chains and all, out of the cave. Unfortunately for Skywarp, the jet warped over a junkyard outside of Scottsdale, Arizona and absent-mindedly dropped the mech into the yard. When Barricade hit the ground, all the pain it caused forced him into recharge and knocked him out completely.

At this point, he didn't even realize the coolant leaking from his optics as they dimmed. He was going to die, surrounded by junk and probably get imprisoned by the Autobots. He was utterly terrified of the situation he was in. The young mech, in reality, wasn't much older than Bumblebee, and accepted the fact that he was going to die with no one to come to his rescue.

Well was he wrong.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy shows up at a junkyard when she wasn't expecting it and Barricade apparently gets a second chance at life...kinda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Dorothy didn’t think she would be finding herself at a junkyard in the middle of Scottsdale, Arizona so that she could receive her birthday present from Chief Mars.

When the woman had gotten off of her day shift, she had found a letter with an address and the chief’s signature inside of it. The envelope was under her patrol car’s windshield wiper and just that this was the man’s way of saying, ‘Come meet me here’. The officer didn’t really know what to think at first, but decided she should at least follow the address in case this was something more important than receiving her gift that evening. So, the woman had grabbed her stuff from her locker, clocked out of her shift, waved a quick goodbye to the boys and sped back out onto the road to meet Chief Mars at the mystery location.

When Dorothy got to the junkyard, she didn’t know what to expect from the chief of police at this point. She stepped out of the cruiser and leaned against the side of the car as she watched Mars walk up to her with a devious smile on his face. Warnings started flashing in her head that this probably was not going to end well for her.

“So is this my gag gift before my actual present?” the woman asked, holding out her envelope and waving it a bit. The chief let out a laugh, which confused the woman even more. What was going on? Did she miss something?

“No, Haven.” he answered as he stopped laughing. “Your gift is inside the junkyard.”

“Oh boy. What did I ever do to receive such a wonderful gift?” she asked, drowning her voice in sarcasm and unenthusiasm.

“It’s better than you think.” the chief explained before walking towards the junkyard waving a hand to follow.

“You know, I thought this was going to be great.” Dorothy began to rant as she walked inside the open yard of scrap metal and old cars. “But the picture is starting to seem like a better gift than this. After less the guys put some actual thought into my present before giving it to me. If were here before you got your car towed again, I am not paying for it.”

“Would you calm down, Haven?” the chief complained, silencing the other person as they walked further into the yard and past more piles of rusting metal. The yard seemed to be a maze of old car parts and old cars just laying around and making a small path thee twisted through the lot. The place smelled like an old mill and some of the dusty ground beneath their feet would be a black puddle of mud that was oil that seeped out from a crushed car.

Must be a horrible way to die. Dorothy thought to herself as she continued to follow the older man through to the next path. I wouldn’t want to die here if I was a car.

As the pair turned around the last corner, Dorothy could already see the black and white paint from out of the corner of her eye. She stopped walking and turned towards the car, seeing it sit there and seem to weep in sorrow. Chief Mars walked over to the cruiser and patted its hood, leaning against the vehicle with the most smug look on his face.

“Ta da!” he exclaimed as he held his hands out to showcase the car he was in front of. “This is your birthday present. I bought it for you and I hope you appreciate it since you need to get a new car anyways.”

Dorothy just stared at him. A new car would of been a great present, if the car that Mars had bought was new. The police cruiser was dented in several places, mostly on its side doors and hood. Speaking of the hood, Dorothy shuddered as she noticed how far dented in the cover was. She hoped the engine wasn’t that damaged. Besides the dents and obvious broken sirens on the top of the car, the car was scorched and had several tears in the framework. By taking an overall look at the car, the woman would have thought this car had crashed into a telephone poll and was put through a blender.

“You bought me a damaged car?” Dorothy asked, putting a hand on her hip and cocking it out. The man’s smile faded a bit, but it was still there. “You bought me a damaged car? Why?”

“Well…” the police chief explained, turning back to look at the clearly upset woman in front of him. “You always kept complaining you never had anything to do after work, and I thought, because you liked fixing cars so much, that this would be a good present.”

Dorothy sighed, knowing the old man did have a point. The female officer didn’t have any friends in Arizona, having moved all the way from Pennsylvania to train at a police academy. Most of her family, expected for her brother who lived with her, living back in their hometown and there was no one she could call “friend” on this side of the country. Except for the F1 team, but that didn’t count. With no friends to go out with and her brother always working at the local car garage most of the time, she was bored and would just refix her own car a lot.

“And what makes you think that I can fix this?” Dorothy asked, walking closer to the patrol car and could now see all the tinier dents and scratches in the paint and metal. The wheels were perfectly intact, which was weird if this thing supposedly crashed. Lucky person to whoever crashed it, she guessed. She looked at the custom paint on the side of the car and noticed the patrol was all the way from California.

“I’ve seen you fix worse.” Chief Mars mused, patting the hood and a gut-wrenching clang came afterwards. Dorothy cringed, wondering if that was the engine. “Also, the thing could be your new car if you fix it. A Ford Mustang for a Dodge Charger is a go switch, right?”

“Well,” the woman said, looking over the car’s frame. “I would have to un-dent the doors and the hood, not to mention all the other dents in the frame. Also, the tears in the metal would have to be welded shut and sanded over to make them smooth. Then, I would have to replace several fuel lines and maybe reattach the entire engine. The undercarriage is practically falling off and I can already see where multiple bolts are barely hanging on. The siren lights would have to be replaced and covered again, along with checking if the siren actually works. The car would have to be repainted as well and probably buffed a few times.”

The chief stared at her for a few seconds before asking, “How long do you think you’ll have it fixed by?”

“Maybe three-four weeks.” Dorothy compromised, bending down to look at the tears in the car’s side. She looked at the fluids leaking out of the hole and narrowed her vision when she noticed the odd color. She pressed her finger into the fluid and scooped some up so she could take a better look at it.

The fuel-like substance seemed to be an odd transparent pink and had the texture of grease and oil. Also, the headlights seemed to be dripping some type of engine coolant and wondered if the coolant tank cracked to cause that. She wouldn’t be surprised. But why would this car be filled with this pink fuel? What kind of car was this? And what exactly did the chief buy?

✢✢✢✢✢✢

_::Stasis lock iminate in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Please seek medical assistance immediately.::_

Barricade groaned as the message flashing across his HUD woke him from his deep recharge. His entire body was numb with pain and his couldn’t feel his wheels. He growled internally, cursing out Starscream to the universe as his memories came back to him. He then realized that the message said an hour and fifteen minutes and started to panic.

_I was in recharge for three days?!_ the mech screamed internally as he could still feel all of the energon sticking to the outside of his frame. He grunted as a wave of pain hit his frame from his spark chamber, the dents creaking onto the wires and lines that connected his spark to the rest on his being. He looked around to see he was surrounded by a bunch of black, not focused enough to not that this optics weren’t powered up yet. _I swear to Primus, if I die because of that pit-spawned jet, I’m going to-_

The sound of soft footsteps broke his train of thought as he silenced his thinking. The footsteps echoed against the wall, rebounding the noise and making it sound larger than it really was. The cybertronian listened as the footsteps got closer and closer to his being, until he could hear laughter and voices coming from in front of him.

“I don’t know why the chief would want to give you a damaged police car for your birthday, but it was his idea, not yours.” one voice spoke up, sounding cocky and male distinctively. The first thing Barricade thought was Bumblebee. But the fact of the scout not having a working voice box made Barricade think otherwise. The mech was stuck on how caught have found him in the middle of a junkyard when he realized that there was one other explanation. Ladiesman217.

“I’m not sure Mars thinks most of the time before he does something, but at least this gives me something to do after work.” another voice spoke up as a reply to the first one, sounding feminine and somewhat honest.

Barricade shrunk down onto his wheels. He thought of all the possibilities of how the human boy and his female partner got him to wherever he was, but he was sure the Autobots had something to do with it. Starscream had said that Skywarp was to warp him to California and something about the Autobots finding him. He contradicted that thought after realizing that the scout or anyone else in the Autobots would off allowed the boy to be with the bot who tried to kill him.

Suddenly, a small hand was pressed down on his dented hood and a surge of pain washed over his frame again, causing him to jerk. He tried his best to hold as still as possible, but not being able to find a more comfortable position to be in made the pain worse. The hand lifted a bit, as if whoever had touched his hood felt the jerk. He silently hoped not.

“What?” the male voice sounded again. “Did the hood burn you or something?”

“Yeah, or something.” the female repeated. The small hand was lightly pressed back down onto his hood and held it there for a second. Barricade refrained from growling at the human for touching his hood, being that his voice box seemed to be slightly dented in at the moment and it would only cause him more pain. The yellow scout could have been around anywhere and the police car wasn’t taking any chances.

When the mech finally decided to open his optics, he found himself in his alt-mode and stuck in an auto repair shop. His wheels were clamped down to a lift of some sort and he could feel the heat radiating off of the human’s hand. Unfortunately, these humans were not the ones he first originally though they were.

The male was tall, had brunette hair, just like Ladiesman217, but had a thinner face and a wider upper body. His brown eyes seemed to be watching the female with a face of concern. His hands were shoved in his pocket and he swided back and forth on his feet as she waited for the other to do something.

The female, on the other hand, looked odd and had man off features about her. Her hair was the same brunette color as the males, but her eyes were a brownish-green and looked down at his hood with a questioning look. Her hair was cut in a short style, one he thought only the males of this species did, and was mostly pushed to one side of her head.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you at home then.” the male said, turning around to walk out back the way he supposedly came, which was out a small door to the side of the three large garage doors with windows. He stopped before he left, took a pair of keys out of his pocket and through them to the female. She caught them in one hand and waved them at him. “Make sure you lock up the shop, ok Dorothy?”

“Yeah, yeah.” the female that went by the name of “Dorothy” said in reply. “I got it. Don’t wreck the house when I’m not there.”

“No promises.” the male said before leaving. The mech wondered if their relationship was more of family or romantic. They looked similar in appearance, but maybe that was just a coincidence.

The police car watched "Dorothy" move away from his frame and pull her arms up in a stretch, which released a loud cracking noise. The police car tensed at the sound, wondering what in the human’s body could have made that noise. Was it their internal structure? He knew, from the Internet, that humans had a similar internal holding systems to a protoform. But if his protoform made a sound like that, he’d probably instantly go to a medic.

“Alright then.” the female said out loud. She turned around to look at him and had a smile on her face. “It’s my birthday and I’m going to do whatever I want, which means starting to fix you.”

If Barricade could give a questioning look, he would. Was the human talking to him directly? Did the human even know he wasn’t a Earth vehicle? And what was a “birthday”? Was is similar to a spark creator day? The term, if put by definition, mean the day that the human was born. Was this the way she was celebrating? All this questions ran through his processor as he began to worry what the human was going to do to him. He was damaged severely, was about to fall into stasis lock, and was now strapped down to a platform that could allow the human access to his spark chamber, which laid in his undercarriage.

“Let’s start with your hood.” “Dorothy” stated, moving to a large box with many drawers and pulling out a device with two wires and a electronic device. The human placed it on the table next to the car and walked back over in front of the Decepticon. She slipped her fingers under a lifted spot in his hood, which made him shudder. The flesh appendages made messages shoot across his HUD that they should not be there.

“Dorothy” gave a small countdown from three and then pull upwards on the hood. Barricade quickly grounded himself as wave after wave of pain rushed through him from his dented hood. Something was caught, or damaged under there that was pulling on his sensory wires. The human stopped and then tried again, not making any progress on the hood at all. She sighed and crossed her arms. “Well that didn’t work.”

_You think?!_ Barricade mentally screamed at her in his helm, trying to the whimper or yelp externally. The mech suddenly felt naeusa take over his systems and his vision grew blurry. He wearily watched at the human walked back over to the toolbox and pulled out two more items. It was a crowbar and a mallet on some kind. He winced, thinking off all the damage that could do to him. She walked over and slipped the end of the crowbar under the space in his hood. _What is she doing?_! he thought, now panicking.

The human backed away from the object and toss the mallet upwards a little in her hand as she looked directly at him. Barricade now instantly realized what she was going to do, and how much it was going to hurt when it happened. Before the human could bring down the mallet on the other end of the crowbar, Barricade revved his engine and growled loudly at the female.

“Don’t you dare force my hood open, you bag of flesh!!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy and Barricade form a bond, which means they won't kill each other in the next few hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

"Don't you dare force my hood open, you bag of flesh!!"

Dorothy froze mid swing and stared at the patrol car with wide eyes. Did the car just yell at her? The woman slowly brought down her mallet and looked around, searching for any signs of another person being in the garage with her. Sadly, there was no one else there but her and the car. She quickly looked back to the car to see that the headlights were on, but dim and the engine had started without anyone turning it on.

"What?" she asked, creasing her brows and glaring at the police car with confusion.

"Are you deaf?" the voice appeared again, sounding agitated and gravely. "I will not let a human break open my hood if it's the last thing I do!"

Dorothy had now full dropped the mallet to the floor and hearing the thud resonate throughout the empty garage. "Are you...are you speaking to me?" she asked, now even more confused at the fact that it sounded like the damaged car was actually talking to her. Was this one of her brother's pranks? The voice didn't sound like his, but with the kind of friends he has with work, she really couldn't be surprised at this point.

"Yes!" the car seemed to jerk as he shouted again. Dorothy instinctively moved backwards, thinking the apparently-possessed car was going to attack her. "Who else would I be talking to since you're the only one here!"

"Well you don't have to shout at me." the woman complained softly, holding up her hands in defeat as she walked back a bit. Reality didn't seem to hit her until about five seconds later when she realized that cars don't talk, nor turn on by themselves. She looked back at the car and reached forward to grab the mallet off the floor and hold it above her shoulder as a weapon in cause the talking car pulled anything. "How the heck are you talking?"

The car seemed to acknowledge that she picked the large hammer in her hands again and revved his engine and produced a staticy growl. "If you hit me with that hammer-"

"I asked you a question!" she yelled at "him". She guessed it was a "him". "Since you are my car and in my garage, kinda, I expect you to listen to me! Now, how are you talking?"

"'Your car'?" the police car growled. "I am not owned by anyone! Especially not to a bag of skin like you!"

"First of all, my skin is perfectly fine!" Dorothy started to rant at the car. "Yes, I may by a little pale for living in Arizona, but I really don't go outside that often. Second of all, the last time I checked, cars don't talk! So unless, you want me to put another dent in you, I suppose you start giving me some answers!"

"Oh please, go ahead and put me in pain and misery then!" the car shouted, sounding somewhat serious and fulling his tone full of sass. Dorothy held the mallet in its place as she walked closer to the already dented patrol car and gave a serious face before hoisting the large hammer up in the air and holding their as she witness the living car beneath her try to drive in reverse. "I was kidding! I was kidding! Don't actually put a dent in me!"

Loud metal clanks sounded throughout the warehouse as the car was trying to move back, but was being stopped by the metal grips that held him to the lift. Dorothy dropped her hammer on the floor, which made a thud against the cement ground underfoot, and made the car jerk forwards and stop moving. "What are you? I want an answer now, or I'll pick back up the hammer and-"

"I get it!" the car shouted at her. "I get it! Don't piss off the humans!"

"Answer!" Dorothy yelled about and slowly reaches down to pick up the hammer again.

"Okay! I'm an alien car from outer space! You happy?" the patrol cruiser spat at her, seeming to be watching as she picked back up the hammer.

"Not really." the small woman stated, actually picking the hammer up and holding it. Dorothy appeared to be calm and collective on the inside, but was panicking on the inside that there was a living car, possibly alien, in the same garage as she and she literally just threatened it with a hammer.

"Urgh!" the Saleen complained, revving its engine again. "Then what do you want me to tell you? That I'm a giant alien robot from a planet call Cybertron and my team the Decepticons are trying to murder your entire race?"

Dorothy stood there with a deadpan expression and sighed deeply as she placed the hammer back on the red toolbox sitting next to the workbench. Why? Why did this have to be happening on her birthday of all days? What did she do wrong to have a murderous alien robot in her possession and then feel the need to attack it?

_::Stasis lock iminate in 45 minutes. Please seek medical assistance immediately.::_

Dorothy looked over at the Saleen Mustang when the automatic voice rang out from what seemed to be the radio, being followed by a stream of unfamiliar curses. "What's a stasis lock?" she asked immediately.

"Nothing of your concern, human." the car spat at her and grunted as if he was in pain. His frame began to shudder as the sound of something powering done sounded from inside his hood. The headlights flickered a bit as another grunt echoed throughout the room, making Dorothy walk over to the car and place a hand on his heated hood. The car jerked underneath it and growled again. "Don't touch my hood! I thought I-" The last part of his sentence was cut off by the sound of something snapping and the car yelling out in pain.

_::Stasis lock iminate in 40 minutes. Please seek medical assistance immediately.::_

Dorothy gave the car a concerned look. If the sound of something snapping what part of his undercarriage, then the engine was going to fall out and that could mean fatal injury. Dorothy, not really thinking about the alien car's opinion at this point, ran over to the control panel on the wall and pressed the lift's power button allow the platform to rise.

As soon as the lift rose in to the air, the car started to jerk forwards and backwards as he was trying to break the restraints on his tires. "What do you think you're doing?!" he shouted at her, grunting a bit as the effort he was putting into escaping seemed to just hurt him more.

"I'm trying to help you." Dorothy answered and walked back to her toolbox so she could drag it under the car. She looked up to see one of the undercarriage panels had snapped off its bolts partly and something light blue was shining behind it. Taking a good guess that's where all the pain was coming from, she loosened the other bolts wholing the plate on and placed it next to here carefully, trying not to damage it. The compartment was dented in on wires and fuel lines that ran in and out of a large glowing orb in the middle. The pink fuel from before was dripping out of the lines slowly and was not collecting on the floor.

"What's the large glowing orb in your undercarriage?" Dorothy asked, stepping up on the ledge of platform underneath the lift and get a better look at it. The car jerked as she held unto the undercarriage and the glowing light flickered.

"Don't touch that!" the car shouted at her. "Just let me suffer, would you?! It's better than receiving help from a human!"

"I'm guessing stasis lock is like going comatose, right?" the woman asked, trying to look through her toolbox for any metal mesh she had. There was no answer from the police car, so she took that as a yes. "As much as you are being a dick right now, I am not going to let you suffer and die. As a police officer, that practically goes against everything I work for. So tell me what this thing is before I hurt you more."

The car shuddered when Dorothy started to press the mesh against the fuel lines. She took out a small hand wielder and started fixing the mech to the cables. After about two minutes, all the fuel lines were covering in a patch like mech and all of the fuel had stopped leaking. The glowing orb started to glow a little louder as the over come on over the radio again.

_::Recalculating. Stasis lock iminate in 1 hour. Please seek medical assistance immediately.::_

"What?' the car asked as it hissed in pain a little. "How did you-"

"Are you gonna tell me how to fix you now?" Dorothy asked, bending down to grab her mallet from the top of her toolbox. "If that light source if your lifeforce, you don't have that long. The plating inside that chamber are crushing your fuel lines and your wires, so I'm taking a guess that's what's causing the stasis lock."

"How would you know?!" the car asked, slightly stunned at the human was giving him an accurate medical evaluation.

"I'm a mechanic." she simply stated, placing her hand wielder back on her toolbox. "I fix formula one racecars as a part-time job. This ain't that hard. You may be an alien from another planet, but you have all the internal workings of a machine. Mostly anyway. I don't see many cars with a glowing blue orb in them, so I'm guess you run on this because you're an alien species from another planet."

"It's called a spark." the car corrected her. "It's like what you humans call a soul. But, it also works as kind of a multi-purpose heart. Very critical to our survival."

"Well, you're going to go comatose in about 55 minutes if you do help me out and tell me if I should bang out the plating or not." Dorothy shot back, leaning back into the chamber with her hammer in hand to bang out the dents in the compartment.

"No, you should not do that!" the car fought her, trying to shake her out of his spark chamber, but failing. "It's going to hurt a lot and I don't want to be in anymore pain than I already am!"

"You either be in pain, or you die." Dorothy stated, bring the hammer up to one of the dents and measuring out how hard she would have to hit it and get it back in its original shape in one hit. "I'm going to let you take the first option and no care what you say against me."

BANG!

"OOWWWWW!"

BANG!

"YOU LITTLE FRAGGING-"

BANG!

"PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF PRIMUS-"

BANG!

"AHHHHH!"

Dorothy was done undenting the plating in the next five minutes after nearly blowing out her eardrums by the amount of screaming the car was doing. She would be lucky if not one heard them while driving by. The neighborhood they were in was always a quiet one, so the screams of agony should have caught someone's attention. A few drops on the pink fuel dripping onto her black tank top as she placed more mesh on the spots that were cut by the plating. "I'm done. And you're welcome."

The car was silent. The only sound coming from the actual car were ragged venting and small whimpers. Dorothy walked out from underneath the car and saw that more coolant had built up under the headlights. The woman sighed, grabbing a rag from the table and wiping all the coolant off of the front of the car, The only voice that escaped the car was the female voice that sounded from the radio.

_::Stasis lock averted. Please continue to seek medical attention on other injuries.::_

"Why?" the car finally spoke, his voice giving off a static burst before sounding through. "Humans are supposed to be hateful and hostile. You even work for the human enforcement service! Why...why did you fix me?"

"Because I'm not a jerk." Dorothy stated simply, tugging her toolbox back over to its spot next to the worktable. She then went to lower the car back down to the floor and walked back over to the workbench. "No one has work here tomorrow, so you'll be here for a while. I'll be back around 5 to start fixing your engine and other things. Oh, and I didn't get your name."

The car shuddered, seeming to sink in on its wheels. "Its, uh, Barricade." he said in a much calmer tone than he had all day, in the last few months actually.

"Like the dividers on the road?" the small woman mused as she walked over to collect her personal belongings from the wall next to the door. "Very fitting for a police car."

"Wasn't my choice." the car answered. "My leader said that I needed to a surveillance scout while on Earth and there was no fighting him, so I chose a police car."

"Well the model is at least a good brand." the human mused as she walked over to the door and opened it. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Barricade. Hope you get some rest."

Dorothy turned all the lights off and locked the door before she went to her own car and drove off back to her house, hoping her brother didn't destroy the place.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Barricade sat in the dark auto repair shop in a slightly less amount of pain when he come in with. That human female actually helped him and didn't turn him into the government like he thought she was. He mused at himself, thinking that the human was maybe more scary than Ladiesman217's girlfriend.

He wasn't going to die now, which was a plus, as he settled down in the most comfortable way he could strapped to a repair lift. The human was smart, smarter than any human he's met, and just saved his life. Finally, this species had done something that impressed him other than being stupidly brave. He closed his optics and thought about this current situation happily.

Starscream didn't know he was still alive, he wasn't going to die, and he had made a one-sided acquaintance with a human female that worked with his state's police force. Also, the human had a high enough IQ to fix him, and promised to fix him more tomorrow. Was he complimenting the human too much? Maybe. But, he was just glad that he could now hiding in plain sight again without the Autobots, or the Decepticon ever bothering him again.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade hates being stuck in a fragging garage during the middle of summer in Arizona.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Barricade had been with his female human for one week, was just about ready to break himself again to get out of this stupid garage.

It had been almost one week since the whole "stasis lock" incident happened and as Barricade was, he did have some pros and cons about living with this human alliance he made for himself. Dorothy, who he had come to learn was the human's designation, was generally a nice person, which didn't sit with him somehow. Their first encounter with this human consisted of her threatening him with a large hammer, and now she seemed to never bring it up at all. Also, the human would freeze on any repairs she was doing when Barricade would making a physical announcement that there was pain.

The female human's brother, was another thing that didn't sit right with him. Maybe it was because of how much many times he had snuck into the garage with Dorothy was working to ask a million questions about what exactly she was doing. Dorothy, to the Decepticon's amusement, would yell out her brother's name, which was Darren, and tell him to "get lost", as she would put it. Shenanigans would insue until the human female would bring out a wrech from her toolbox and threaten to hit the male over the head with it if he didn't leave. The male did leave quickly and Barricade found her similar in many ways to the Autobot medic, Ratchet.

But, as much as he hated being in their housing unit's garage, the young mech did find some beneficial things about being with Dorothy for the time being. The human pair, as amusing and annoying as they were, had giving him a hiding spot from both the Autobots and Starscream. Their garage could fit two vehicles in it, even though Dorothy had been nice enough to keep her own and her brother's cars in the driveway to let him have his own personal space. Darren, of course, didn't know about Barricade, so he complained before agreeing.

Also, Dorothy's progress on fixing the rest of the plating and internal parts that needed repair, under his instruction, of course. He had found that his engine had been pierced in many places, which had cause the human to have to seal them with her high-pressured welder she had borrowed from her place of work. The week also consisted of her unbending most of the dents and replacing his sirens' glass bulbs and casing with a new ones, which felt weird at first since there weren't made of cyber-matter. That didn't matter as much since his self-repair systems would convert any new parts into their cyber-matter counterparts over time.

But today was a Thursday, which meant Dorothy had off from work and was in the garage virtually all day so that she could finish up all the work she promised Barricade she would by the end of the week. And after a few hours of being stuck in that garage with the human female looking inside his now undented hood to fix a crack in his coolant reserve tank began to get on his wires.

"My hood still hurts after you ripped it open, you know." the police car complained as he felt another wire move out of or back into its original position.

The human chuckled a bit, which seemed to be the usual response Barricade would get if he ever mentioned anything about anything that hurts. "Well, that's what happens when you jerk backward when I pull it open." Dorothy chided, grabbing another patch of mesh from the table next to her.

Barricade lightly growled, still slightly irritated with the fact that the human was still mocking him. "Something was caught! I didn't want it to hurt!"

"I thought Decepticons could handle a little pain." she recalled, seeming to remember a past conversation. "Or is that not true anymore?"

"You ripping my hood off its lock is not a little pain!" Barricade argued.

Dorothy look out from behind Barricade's hood with a sergeant's mask on and pair of lab glasses. Her brunette hair and again pushed to one side, but it was frizzy and pushed behind her ear. Barricade came to know that was how she usually wore her hair, especially during the heat of the day. He had also come to know that Arizona, during the summer, was even hotter than California was. Being in the garage all day didn't help Barricade keep his cooling fans down at all.

"How much pain are you in now?" she asked, moving her mask off to hang around her neck.

"Well, besides my hood, none really." Barricade answered as his internal systems did a sensor check. "I suppose you feel proud?"

"It means I've been doing my job as your mechanic correctly." she mused as she slipped her mask back on and went back to what she was currently fixing.

Barricade sighed and his frame relaxed a bit, knowing that he wasn't in as much pain anymore. The woman had been nice to him enough to fix him, for the most part, and give him shelter even if he did try to destroy her planet. She also seemed to be able to find a comeback to every comment he made about her. Dorothy had his respect. The police car frankly didn't want to leave, knowing that Starscream, the Autobots and the government would be on his tailpipe in a sparkbeat.

Suddenly, the Tetris theme started playing in the background of the cacides buzzing from outside and the droning of the TV that was sitting on the wall. Dorothy popped up again and looked over to the table, seeming to be searching for the noise. Barricade quickly noticed the black unit Dorothy seemed to carry around was sitting on the workbench and was playing the music. The human moved away from Barricade's hood and picked up the phone as she was taking her gloves off.

"Hello?" she asked, putting the phone to her ear and answering it. "...Hey Chief."

Barricade groaned, knowing the man too well. That was the guy who bought him and gave him to Dorothy as a birthday present. Since he wasn't awake during that time, he had to ask the female what had happened and it had come embarrassing all too fat. "Mars need you for something? I thought it was your day off."

"It is, but duty calls." she answered the patrol car sitting in front of her, placing a hand on her hip as she listened to the man on the other end. "...no, my brother was just mentioning something. What do you need?"

Dorothy's expression narrowed and her tone became deadly serious as the conversation carried on, which seemed to be troubling for Barricade to understand. Why did Chief Mars need her so suddenly? Wasn't she a highway patrol office? The police car seemed to focus on other things in the room as the two officers had their chat. The TV happened to be entertaining enough until a noise snapped him out of his distraction.

Dorothy, in her time of being on the phone, had signed off the call and began to clean up the tools that were spread out around Barricade's front. The noise had been her slamming her toolbox shut with all of her tools inside. Barricade looked at her panicked expression with confusion as he wondered what had happened on the phone. The human then traveled back over to close Barricade's hood, accidentally slamming it shut as well.

Barricade yelped, wincing as the dulled pain in his hood grew and surged through his frame. "Hey! Would you watch it, please?!" he yelled at her.

Dorothy looked up from her hands and seemed to only now acknowledge the existence of Barricade sitting there. She looked at him apologetically and rubbed his hood as the an apology as she raced out of the garage. "Sorry! I just...the force needs me right now."

The sound of the human's police car's doors opening and slamming shut echoed from behind him and he still wondered what was going on. "But isn't your day off?" Barricade argued, yelled back to her as she turned on the engine to the Charger. "What happened for the police to need you?"

"None of you business." Dorothy yelled back and pulled out of the driveway. Even from the street, Barricade could hear the human sigh in regret. "I know I promised to fix the rest of your engine today, but I have to go. I'm sorry, Barricade." And then the human drove off down the road with her sirens on.

Barricade sat there in the garage stunned that the human female was apologizing to him. What had happened that they needed her for the whole day? It was only 11 in the morning. What was so important? The police car sat there in the garage for a few minutes before decided to look into this himself. It was only until he was halfway into the Phoenix/Scottsdale Police Database before he noticed that he was definitely concerned about something. Why was he concerned? This human meant nothing to him. She was just his cover until he could leave and go out on his own. Why did he care about what she was doing?

The Decepticon discarded the thought as he found the file that Dorothy had been listed on. The case was about a bank robbery in Phoenix and how they were making their way in a getaway car towards Scottsdale, which was where Dorothy was stationed. She was listed at the top in the highway patrol call list for "Pursuit and Chase". Chief Mars must of called her for that reason and Dorothy was just in a rush to get there before the robbers could. But something still felt wrong about this, like deep down in Barricade's spark he knew something was going to go wrong. The feeling felt uncomfortable that he was actually caring about someone other than himself.

So, he did more research on the "Pursuit and Chase" list. As he read into it, he found out some interesting things about the Arizona/Scottsdale Police Force and Dorothy in general. Apparently, the Phoenix/Scottsdale Police Force have their own F1 team for high-speed chases. And Dorothy Haven, which was the human's full name, was their volunteer mechanic. Barricade laughed, figuring that's what the female meant when she said she fixed race cars for a part-time job. And even more interesting, Officer Haven was the highway patrol's top officer and she was only 22 years old, as of last week of course. The woman record was impressive, even if she was human.

But now, all Barricade could do was sit and wait for Dorothy to return for her high-speed chase after the criminals that were trying to escape. He guessed it wouldn't take that long since he had seen how fast Dorothy's Dodge Charger could go if put at top speed. The Decepticon wouldn't be surprised if it was an Autobot in disguise. But hours, hours flew past and there was still no sign of Dorothy. Barricade had distracted himself with online games and reading into the F1 team's files that he did notice how much time had passed until he saw a beam of golden light on his dash.

At first, the police cruiser had thought it was the Charger's headlights shining through the open garage. But when there was no car in the driveway and he noticed the sun was setting over some of the houses across the cul-de-sac, that feeling or worry returned and Barricade thought he was going to purge his tanks. Where was she? What was going on? Did something happen? Barricade mentally slapped him. Of course something happened. Something always happens.

His negative thinking didn't improve when Darren's car pulled in to its usual spot. The male got out of the car and looked across the driveway to see that his sister's car was not present. He sighed and walked into the garage, eyeing Barricade the entire time. The police car sighed quietly and began to grow impatient as her brother stood at the door that lead into the house and watched him.

"You know," Darren spoke up, directing his voice towards Barricade. "You're lucky, you piece of junk."

Barricade glared at the human, even though the human probably couldn't see it.   
"It's been two years since she's ever spoke about getting a new car." he continued. "She modifies all the cars she gets and she even modified mine to run better. All your plating is already unbent and she's been working on your engine non stop for the past few days. You're lucky she found you before you were crushed into a metal cube and left to rust."

Barricade stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was being complimented or insulted. What did he mean by "you're lucky"? Did Dorothy have other cars in the past that didn't work as well?

"God, I'm talking to a non-sentient object." he complained as he sighed into his hands. Barricade would have laughed if he wasn't trying to keep his cover. "Just...just don't get her into an accident. I know she had her job and she's good at it, but I don't want to see her in a hospital room, hooked up to machines again." And then Darren opened the door and walked into the house.

Barricade just kinda sat there in shock. Dorothy was in an accident? When? How did that happen? Was she in the hospital right now? What machines was she hooked up to? Was the accident that bad? All these questions raced through his processor as he was thrown into a stupor. Yes, the police car knew Dorothy's job entailed her speeding down highways at high speeds to catch speeders, but the image of her crashing into something at high speeds scared him. But then of course, why did he care so much?

Barricade sat in the garage for another two hours until the sound of a Dodge Charger sounded from down the road. Barricade angled his side mirrors to look at the undamaged police car pull into the driveway and turn off as the engine quieted. The living police cruiser had never been so happy to see another police car in his entire life. A wave of relief washed over the Decepticon as he also watched Dorothy step out off the car seemingly unharmed.

The human female walked into the garage with a piece of gauze on the left side of her face over her cheek bone, which Barricade was able to see. The police car didn't say anything until Dorothy sat down in her chair at her workbench and sighed in exhaustion. The female also looked tired and frustrated at something that he didn't seem to know about, which made him worry a bit.

"Hey." Barricade finally spoke up, trying to be quiet and not scare Dorothy, but she still jumped in surprise when his voice echoed throughout the garage.

The human whipped her head towards the Saleen Mustang with wide eyes, but something seemed to kick and she placed her head in her hands. Barricade could know see how tired she was and why she didn't acknowledge him like she usually did.

"Hey, Barricade." she finally answered. Dorothy brought her head up to look at the car. "Sorry if you were bored."

"I'm usually bored in this metal shack." he retorted, but regretted it since the human didn't look like she was in the mood to be joking around. "So...um...how was work?"

"Just peachy!" she exaggerated sarcastically. Barricade could feel a rant coming on. "First, I had to chase the robbers all the way down to the storage houses at the end of the city. Then, there was open fire over some civilians and I happened to got shot covering for one. And finally, I had to sit in the medic's office for six and a half hours, receiving snarky comments from Queen of the Highway and having to write a full on report about it! So yeah, my day's been great!"

Barricade instinctively drove backwards a bit from the enraged woman and decided not to say anything else. The thought of making her more angry brought the word "mallet" to mind fairly quickly. He listened to Dorothy rant on about a woman he presumed was Ms. Walker, who was the leader of the F1 team and apparently has a very rich family background.

"Barricade?" the woman called out, sounding calmer and caused the mech to look at her. "You ok? You haven't said a word ever since I started rating."

The police car looked back at her and sighed, driving back to his original position. "You in a fit of rage is not a good thing. I don't want to be dented again."

Dorothy laughed, smirked at the statement. "I think we're pass the whole 'hammer' thing now. Anyways anything happen when I was gone except Darren's possible endless worrying."

"Nothing much." Barricade answered blandly. "Where'd you get shot?"

"One bullet grazed my face and one decided to plant itself in my arm." Dorothy said, turning to show the car the bandages wrapped over a piece of gauze that was turning red on her upper arm. "The robbers had hostages and I took a shot for one. All the civilians were unharmed afterward so I did my job."

"Getting shot for someone else seems too selfless for me." he mused. "Rather run away and avoid conflict."

"Still kinda ironic you choose a cop car." the woman mused right back, as she stood up to walk into the house. "Well, I'm too tired to fix you tonight. So, I'm going in and try to avoid my brother."

"Your brother...talked to me today." Barricade mentioned awkwardly. This made the human stop and turn back around to face him. "He said something about you getting into an accident."

"Did you talk back?" she immediately asked him.

"No, but he seemed concerned about something." Barricade answered. "Did something happen or-"

"It's nothing to worry about, 'Cade." Dorothy cut him off, patting her left leg twice before disappearing into the house.

Barricade was left in the garage, alone. As much as he hated it, he did start to worry. Barricade felt that nausea rush over him again and he sighed regretfully. What was so special about this human that made him so uneasy feeling? He really couldn't answer that. So he went back go thinking about the garage.

Being stuck in the old, rusty, safe garage.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade pissed off Dorothy a little too much and she kinda goes a little too far by calling the government.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

"I'm still surprised it only took three weeks for you to fix this thing." Dorothy's brother said to her as he traced a finger down the Saleen Mustang's hood, remembering how dented it was from before. "I would have thought that it would have stayed in that scrapyard until it got dismantled."

Dorothy gasped and walked over from across the garage to slap her brother playfully on the arm. She knew that Barricade would be complaining about Darren the entire way to the F1 hangar now because of that insult. The short woman as noticed the short flicker of the headlights as the engine seemed to rumble more aggressively as her brother started touching the police car's hood.

"He doesn't like that, you know." she scolded her brother and pushed him hand off of Barricade's hood. The rumble stopped and the headlights seemed to brighten back to their usual shine. "His hood is very sensitive."

"'He'?" Darren asked as he watched her sister get into the car on the driver's side. "I know people give their cars pronouns, but the car's a 'she' for sure."

Dorothy laughed and got into the car, closing the door and rolling down the window. "Why's that?"

"Because the car's got style and a nice bumper!" Darren shouted before he walked into the house. and slammed the door behind him.

A sudden growl arose from the radio of the car and Dorothy felt that car pull all the way out of the driveway and into the street before pulling away from the house and making its way through the winding streets of the neighborhood department she lived in. Barricade was pissed, she knew that by the way he was driving and how he was jerking everytime he made a turn, but he was still in pain. Dorothy knew that Barricade's systems were online at full capacity, but the fact that he hasn't drove in quite awhile scared her that the sentient car might break down.

"Barricade, you need to take it easy." Dorothy tried to explain to the car as he exited onto the main route outside the department and started on his way down the road. "You haven't been out of the garage in a while and I'm thinking that I should maybe drive to the station. You've also never been there before."

"No need." the car seemed to hiss at her. "I have the location of the hangar on my GPS, and for not being out of the garage, that's your fault. I have been sitting in that damned garage for the past three weeks, being insulted by your sibling and not allowed to go anywhere when I could drive perfectly fine."

"Darren insulted you?" Dorothy asked, placing her hands on the wheel so it looked like she was driving. "When and how? Darren loves cars."

"Oh I'm so sure after he called me a female!" Barricade shouted back, pulling up to the light and his engine started rumbling loudly as his anger grew. "He also has hit me with a crowbar and several cups of soda have been spilled on my paint coat!"

"And I fixed that dent and cleaned up the soda stains, so don't start complaining about again." Dorothy commented under her breath as she continued down the street towards the police station. "I'm surprised you haven't tried to kill him yet. You're showing a great sense of self-control for what you explained to be 'Decepticon behavior'."

"I have the right mind to kill the blasted human!" Barricade growled, moving in and out of the lines, trying to get ahead of the incoming traffic that was moving towards them. "Why are we even going to the police station, anyway? I thought I made it clear that I didn't want anything to do with the government."

"Because this is the only way you'll get out of the garage to drive places. And I also need a tool from the F1 hangar to tighten the bolts of your undercarriage better since the wrench I have doesn't fit." the woman explained, eyeing the road and other drives as they drove past. Some children in the back seats of cars waves through the windows, and Dorothy smiled and waves back. "Maybe you should become my cop car, and you'll get to drive more often."

Barricade slammed on the brakes. Dorothy jerked forward, but didn't fly out of the front window since her seatbelt had tightened around her as the Saleen Mustang stopped. Sadly, she did hit her forehead on the steering wheel and yelped as she impacted with it. When the car balanced out, Dorothy shot back into the seat and head the spot where the steering wheel made a bruise.

"Barricade, what the-" Dorothy groaned as she had to close her eyes briefly to allow her vision to focus. When she opened her eyes again, she saw a red light hanging above the street and a bunch of other cars lining up on both sides of the route. They were at a red light about a few blocks away from the police station and Barricade had full on stopped moving.

"Are you crazy?!" the car shouted at the woman sitting in the driver's seat. "Become a police car?! How many times do I have to drive it into your pathetic human brain?! I AM A DECEPTICON! The police are part of the government, and the government wants to kill me! The only reason I'm with you is because you're the only person insane enough to actually fix me! After you finish repairing me, I'll be gone and out of your hair forever!"

"And yet you choose a police car as your disguise." Dorothy asked, rubbing the red spot on her head before looking up at the rearview mirror. "I could be arrested for having custody of you, but here I am still saving your sorry ass!"

"Another reason to why you're insane." the Decepticon snarked as he pulled forward again and drove through the green light. "And I've already told you that the car was the only thing that could get me around government places without suspicion."

The two were silent for a moment. Dorothy had thought the mass murdering robot from outer space had grown to live with her, but apparently not. He would complain, always complain about the tiniest of things. Pain in his hood, Darren being a jerk, the garage being too hot or rusty, or not being able to drive anywhere. And here he was, driving down the road, with no Darren, no garage, and mimin pain in his hood, but he still complained about having to live with her. What did she do to deserve this? Nothing! Nothing at all!

"You know what?" Dorothy said, finally fed up with all of the sentinel car's attitude and complaining. This damn car reminded her of someone. And that someone was Ms. Mayrin Walker. "Maybe I will."

"Maybe you will what?" Barricade asked with the same amount of sass she was giving off. He turned off on a dirt road that lead straight to the F1 hangar. Dorothy didn't answer though. When the scanner came up, she roller down the window automatically and let the device scan her badge. When the gate opened, Dorothy rolled back up with the window with her badge back in her pocket and forcefully made Barricade drive forward. She heard the car yelp in pain as she slammed her foot down on the petal. "Maybe you will what? Answer me, will you?"

Dorothy pulling into the hangar and pulled into her parking spot, not letting Barricade take control of himself as she placed him in the emergency break and parked. She unbuckled, opened the car door and slammed it behind her as she stepped out. She stood in front of the car with a death glare on and startec at the front windshield.

"Maybe I will just rat you out and get you taken away to the government. Let them experiment and torment you for the rest of your life, as you so-audily proclaimed." she finally answered. "Because I've done nothing but help you, and you treat me like I've imprisoned you and tortured you. But thinking about it, I probably should have just rejected you and left you to die in that scrapyard."

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Dorothy walked away and Barricade laughed. There was no one else in the hangar at the moment, since his sensors didn't pick up any human life signs other than the woman's. The Decepticon laughed hysterically, but the woman ignored it. Barricade knew the woman was joking around with him. Yeah, he had been mean to her, but it was kind of hard not to be when it was in his coding to be sassy. At least, he thought she was joking.

"Nice one, Haven!" he said while laughing still. "Real threatening. How long you've been practicing that one, huh? I'm sure you would have scared the plating off of every Decepticon I know."

Dorothy didn't answer back, but pulled out her cell phone. Her back was turned to the car, so Barricade could see what she was doing. The sound of dialing entered the car's audio receptors and he wondered how the woman was calling.

Probably her brother. the car mused, sitting back on his wheels. She was probably worried about him, as usual.

The police car decided to run a systems check, which showed up clear but his transformation cog. Since his systems were damaged and he was almost thrown into stasis, the t-cog systems had forced him into his alt mode and shut off until all systems were operational again. It was a health protocol that was installed in all soldiers on both sides during the war so if something were to happen, their sparks would be more protected in the middle of their frames instead of being in an easy-to-access spot. He had tried rebooting it last night, but it didn't work.

A sudden ringing sounded throughout the hangar and disturbed Barricade form his systems check. He looked back over at Dorothy to see her with the same death glare expression on and holding her phone out in front of her while it rang. She had one hand on her hip and was tapping her foot as she side-eyed Barricade from across the room. The police car stared at her with confused feelings, wondering why her brother wasn't picking up when she called.

 _"Hello? Haven, is that you?"_ That definitely was not Darren.

"Hey Epps, how's working in a top-secret military facility going?" Dorothy replied with her usual peppy attitude when she talked to friends, but this time, her enthusiasm seemed a little too out there to seem calm. It was full of snark and smugness. "See any aliens yet?"

 _"That's supposed to be a secret! Lennox would have my head if he knew I told you!"_ the familiar sounding man whisper-yelled at her from the other side of the call.

Barricade finally froze in shock as he figured out who she called. It was one of the military rangers from Qatar, who had been attacked by Blackout and Scorponok and then placed on the military base with the Autobots as part of the human liaison division with Ladiesman217. Oh, he was so screwed. Barricade realized that she wasn't kidding when the woman said she would rat him out to the government. She had literally just called the Autobots to tell them that she had him in her custody.

"Don't worry, I'll make this quick." she answered, walking over to where Barricade was parked and pressing a hand on his hood. "I have some cool news to share with you. You mind getting Lennox too? It's been awhile since I've heard from the guy."

Pain surged and Barricade had to hold in a whimper as the phone was on speaker and any noise would be picked up. And added with the pain, Dorothy had become threateningly scary. The woman was about to tell the human liaisons of the Autobots, of Prime himself, that she had the Decepticon scout in her possession and she was showing no mercy either. Barricade slowly feared the outcome of this situation. After Dorothy ratted him out, she would apply those Primus-forsaken clamps down on his wheels again and leave him for dead. The Autobots would take him in and it would be Starscream all over again. He knew that the Autobot scout and their weapons specialist would have no problem tearing him to pieces.

 _"Sure. Something happen in Arizona?"_ the man asked with the accompanying sound of footsteps with him.

"You could say that." Dorothy answered and sat there for a moment as she waited for the man to get his friend.

Barricade rumbled his engine and Dorothy glanced at him. She pressed the mute button on her phone and set the phone down on her lap as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the Mustang. She was still made at him, with was reasonable by the way Barricade had been treating her, but the car was now increasingly worried about his well being. Dorothy pressed down on the hood more as she seated herself on top and crossed her legs. The amount of weight from the woman started to cause more pain surge through his frame.

"You wanna say something before I say anything to them?" Dorothy asked, having a sickly innocent tone. "I'm guessing you know who I called anyways. I can see your frame quivering."

Barricade stared at her for a while, only thinking of how this happened. She was nice to him. No one had ever treated him with any respect in his entire life, except with the Decepticon, but that was more of a reward earned than the ranks treating him that way naturally. She was nice enough to actually try and fix him. The woman could have been doing something more important with her free time, but she spent it on him instead. Even if her brother treated him like trash and threw things at him, Dorothy would be there to clean it up and fix him again.

But in the end, Barricade had taken advantage of her kindness. He had threatened her every time his hood was touched. He nagged her about fixing him faster and made sure not to let her touch things that definitely needed fixing. He scared her everytime she went into the garage and boasted about how he would leave after this was over. He had suspected the woman had friends of her own, so him being there in the garage wouldn't mean anything. But after she had told him about her not having any other friends but the ones at the people station, he now understood why she cared about him so much.

"I'm sorry." he grounded up, making it almost too quiet to hear. His frame sunk into his tires as the woman didn't pay attention to him. He hated the words. But she needed to hear them because Barricade was, for probably the first time in his life, sorry about hurting someone. So, he swallowed the knot in his voice box and said louder, "I'm sorry."

Dorothy turned her head to look at him, but didn't say anything. Her deadly expression had soften, but not lifted entirely. She sighed, sliding off of the police car's hood and walked away from the car as she pressed the mute button again. "You there, Epps?"

 _"Yup. I'm here with Lennox, too."_ the ranger answered. _"Now what did you need to tell us? Did you finally get a boyfriend, or something?"_

"No." Dorothy answered. "I just wanted to tell you I finally got a new police cruiser."

Barricade felt his tanks drop deeply. Dorothy was still looking at him awhile she was on the phone, but Barricade decided not to pay attention to the phone call anymore. He technically deserved this. He was a really was a traitor afterall. He mentally cursed himself that Starscream's words had gotten to him, but they were partially true. He lost Frenzy after the battle in Mission City and never went looking for him. He knew Blackout was a good colleague of his, but Barricade never engaged in the fight at Mission City. He betrayed his whole fraction by never fighting with Megatron.

That's when he knew that Starscream broke more than his body physically. Starscream had added verbal abuse, mental torture, false rewards and other mind tricks to aid the process of breaking Barricade. The police car had never been loyal to the Seeker's ideals, so the silver jet had decided to break them into him. Barricade was one of the youngest mechs in the war, aside from the yellow bugger. He was feeling emotions he never thought he could have, like sadness, defeat and most of all, extreme guilt and fear.

"Barricade?" the voice of the woman spoke, making the car snap out of his thought process and look at her. She was done with her phone call, and Barricade slowly backed away from her as he tried to put distance between him and Dorothy. The woman's expression changed from blank to worried. "Are you ok? Why are you backing away?"

"You told them." His voice cracked with static. Slag, he hated this. He didn't want to be emotional, but something felt damaged inside of him and it didn't feel right. "You told them and now they're coming to take me away. So why don't you just strap me down to the platform again so I can't run away."

Dorothy looked at him with a shocked and confused expression. "Wait. Were you listening to my conversation at all? Because after I was down with my call, I forgave you."

Barricade didn't move. Barricade knew that she was lying. It was just like when Starscream would promise him freedom from the tortures, but he lied. He always lied. "You said that you bought a new police cruiser and then...I stopped listening because I already knew you were going to rat me out to them. So who long until the Autobots are on their way?"

"I didn't say that at all, 'Cade." Dorothy said, moving forward to rest her hand not on the car's hood, but on the front grill. "I said that I had gotten a new car and I would text them a picture when I had the time. I was never going to tell them about you, Barricade. I was just...mad and i overdid it and I'm so sorry if it hurt you."

Barricade wanted to believe her, but he couldn't. Not after what Starscream had done. His vents started to quicken and he felt like he was being crushed under something a thousand times his weight. All of the lights started dimming around him and he felt like he was trapped in a small room with no way out. "I'm sorry, but I don't...I can't believe you. You're lying to me. I know it. You're lying and I'm going to be experimented on and tortured until they crush my spark and I don't want that! I don't want to die! Please, don't hurt me anymore!"

And that's when it happened. Barricade's surroundings changed and he was back in the cave, chained up against the wall and damaged beyond repair. Starscream was there, with a whip in servo and everything, Dorothy and all the repairs she did were gone.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade has a panic attack and a PTSD flashback all in one. Could this day get any worse?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

_“You pathetic excuse for a Decepticon!”_

_CRACK!_

_“You should have been in that battle with Megatron, but no, you stayed behind like the coward you are!”_

_CRACK!_

_“Your punishment would be no different if Megatron was still alive!”_

_CRACK! CRACK!_

_Barricade whimpered again as the electric whip hit his back and his bio-lights again and again as the words sunk in with every blow. He couldn’t see Starscream, but he knew the Seeker was there, watching him whine and crumble at every dent that was placed into his back. All the pain that had gone away resurfaced and surged through the scout’s body. His door wings were stiff and limp from the whip. His arms were tied to the wall in front of him and over his face, so he couldn’t get away. Barricade didn’t move or say a word while the act was being carried out._

_CRACK!_

_The whip hit him again and he heard a loud shattering of glass, which could only mean that the whip had finally broken one of his bio-lights. Barricade’s back was already numb with gashes, but the shattered bio-light seemed to apply more pain to his frame. He gritted his denta as the pain surged, trying hard to not let Starscream know he was succeeding in inflicting pain on him. The Seeker would lose interest at some point and go away._

_Barricade heard a sigh of disappointment and footsteps grew near. A pede was pressed on his backside and the police car had to grit his denta again. “I thought you would have learned to disobey me. But it seems that all that trouble I went through to get you to behave was in vain. I wonder what Blackout or Frenzy would had thought.”_

_Barricade closed his optics to no coolant could fall from them. He felt the room start the close in around him as the Seeker started laughing hysterically at him. The pede was removed and the sound of the moving away echoed throughout the halls, but the laughter never stopped. It bounced off the wall in an endless noise that kept filling his audio receptors. The world around his seemed to blurr and shift as he felt dizzy._

_Suddenly, his surrounded flashed and he was now in a pitch black room and had his limbs chained behind his back. He was kneeling on the floor and surrounded by shadowed figures, all with evil grins plastered on their faces._

_“Fragger!”_

_“Piece of scrap!”_

_“Worthless junk!”_

_“Pathetic excuse for a mech!”_

_Barricade only heard the shouts of the mechs and their laughter. He couldn’t feel the floor beneath him, or anything at all around him. He couldn’t bring his helm up to look at them as some invisible weight seemed to force him to look down at the floor. The mechs laughter grew louder and swarmed his hearing and his sensors. His vents became hitched and his chassis clenched with a grunt-wrenching pain. Something was crushing him again, but this time, it was clamping down around his body and denting him inwards._

_Panic ensued as the police car tried to break free of his chains, struggling and pulling at the restraints as he tried to escape. The bots surrounding him laughed even harder as Barricade failed to get away. The mech finally could look up at the cybertronians and recognized who was around him. The Autobot scout, the Autobot weapons specialist, Starscream, Frenzy, Soundwave, Blackout and other Decepticons he couldn’t remember stood there laughing to their spark’s content. Their optics glowed with a bright intensity that made Barricade wince and fear grew more and more. The tugging on the restrains did nothing, so Barricade just sat there in defeat._

_This was all his fault. He betrayed everyone, and this was his reward. As the police car hung his head, he could sense the flowing of energon escape his wounds in his backside. All his undented plating had disappeared and was replaced with the ones that were bashed in and jarring. Both his bio-lights were broken again and he could feel his chassis begin to crush inwards and clamp around his spark and his vents. He hated it all. The pain, the laughter, the fear of being dead and sparkless any second, and the situation seemed to escalate as the pain continued to pulse in and out of his spark chamber._

_Barricade could only think about Dorothy. The human female that decided to risk her life to save his sorry aft. He didn’t deserve her help. She was too kind and too good-natured to help something as pathetic as himself. She had fixed all his plating and even his spark chamber when he didn’t deserve it. The woman even kept his secret from the world when she could have told everyone that there was a giant living alien in her garage._

_The garage. Oh, how Barricade wanted to be in the garage again. The smell of gasoline, oil and cleansing wax mixed with the smell of rust and old metal. It reminded him of Kaon, which wasn’t the brightest city-state on Cybertron, but at least it wasn’t here. That garage meant no one would hurt him without Dorothy throwing a fit about it. The garage meant that someone did care about him. The garage was his home away from home. He wanted to be there. But that was sadly all just a dream to make him believe his life was better. He was alone, hurt and utterly scared for his life._

**_Just a small town girl~, livin’ in a lonely world~, she took the midnight train going anywhere~._ **

_Barricade perked up to the sound of the music playing out of nowhere. He had heard the song before, being that it was a very famous human song that seemed to be everywhere. But he only heard it recently when he was in that garage. Dorothy had the radio on while she was working on his engine as part of her “working” playlist. The song was catchy enough to drill itself into his processor a million times over._

**_Just a city boy~, born and raised in South Detroit~, he took the midnight train going anywhere~._ **

_Barricade looked around the void of blackness to see that all the shadowed figures that were there had disappear and he was there alone with nobody there, but the music in the background. Barricade was confused to why the music would be playing in a place like this, but it made him miss his mistreated friend so badly. The song continued to play, but Barricade decided not to listen. He didn’t want to remember having Dorothy sing that song because it made him feel worse about treating her so badly._

That was until he reopened his optics to find he was back in the warehouse, the one which was lined with F1 cars and other tools needed to fix them. He frantically looked around and almost didn’t believe it at first when the woman was standing at the table, watching him with concern on her face and playing the music in the background.

“D-Dorothy?”

✢✢✢✢✢✢

“D-Dorothy?”

The voice was weak and fear ridden, but Dorothy instantly snapped to attention when she heard Barricade speak again. The police car hadn’t spoke in a good hour and a half, which made her believe that she had offended him in someway by pulling that revenge prank on him earlier. The weird thing thought was Barricade was mumbling and whimpering to himself while his frame shook and trembled in a way someone in pain would.

“Hey Barricade.” she said calmly as possible. The police car seemed to be focusing on her and her alone. She reached over to turn off the radio on her phone and turned it off. She stuffed it in her pocket and walked over to the car. “You’ve been...quiet for a while. Something happened?”

“You’re still here?” the police car questioned her in surprise and uncertainty. Dorothy kneeled down and stared at the car with immense worry. Did he think she would have left, or something? Barricade still couldn’t drive anywhere since his undercarriage was still lose and one wrong turn for knock the entire thing off. But Dorothy mainly was focused on the fact that Barricade was still shaking and whimpering.

“I didn’t go anywhere.” Dorothy reassured the police car. “What happened? Why are you all shaken and scared all of a sudden. Are you still afraid the Autobots are coming? Because I was joking about the whole ‘turning you in’ thing.” She was about to place her hand on the hood of the Decepticon’s hood, but decided against it because she knew that Barricade didn’t like that. Her hand hover there for a moment before the police leaned up a bit and touched her hand. Dorothy looked at the car in surprise and figured that something really bad must’ve happened for him to do that.

The police car hesitated for a second before speaking again. “I don’t feel safe. I want to go back to the garage.”

“What?” Dorothy was taken back a bit. Where was Barricade and who the heck was this?! “But I thought you hated being in the garage. You always complain that it’s too rusty and would corride your paint if you stayed in there too long.”

Barricade slowly rolled forward so that Dorothy’s arm was laying gently on top of his hood and over the front of the car. He gently nudged into her side and stayed there. Dorothy was too shocked to pull away so she brought her other arm up to hug the car back. The shaking seemed to stop after a while and the two sat there as time seemed to pass slowly. The police car didn't say a word to the woman for a while. “I'm sorry I treated you so badly.” he said quietly. “I'm sorry I hurt you.”

“You didn't do anything of the sort, ‘Cade.” Dorothy answered. She laid her head down on the hood of the car and patted it gently. “You want to talk about it?”

“Starscream.” was all the car said before going silently again. He didn't say anything, but continued some time later. Dorothy was there to listen to it. “He broke me. I hurt so much. I thought I was going to die alone. I was scared and I felt disgusted with myself. I'm a failure. You shouldn't be helping me.”

Dorothy finally understood what had occurred. Barricade had a flashback and a panic attack at the same time, causing a day terror. A nightmare that happens while you're awake and mostly happens to people who have PTSD and anxiety problems. Barricade's experience caused it, which explained why he was unresponsive for a while. All Dorothy could do was smile and hug the Decepticon more. “You’re not a failure, Barricade. You survived, which is a great accomplishment. Stop downgrading yourself when you've done nothing wrong.”

“But I did!” he shouted, all his anger and sadness breaking out at once. “I betrayed my whole fraction! I was hiding when I should have been fighting! I'm a coward!”

“Barricade, stop.” Dorothy said warmly. She waited for the broken police car to calm down before she spoke again. “Who told you those things? Who told you those things were true?”

“Starscream?” was the answer she got.

“Then they aren't true.” Dorothy got up from her spot and went to go grab the automatic wrench from the toolbox. She then returned and went under Barricade to fasten the loose bolts quickly. When she came back up, there was coolant pooling on the floor. She sighed and grabbed a rag from the table so she could clean off of the coolant that was dripping from the car's headlights. “You ok now?”

“Y-Yeah.” Barricade answered, trying to control his voice box so it wouldn't break into static. “Thank you...for being my friend.”

“Anytime, bud.” Dorothy replied and walked over to the driver’s side door and pull it open so she could hop in. She buckled the seatbelt over herself and instantly felt it tighten around her body. She smiled and patted Barricade's dashboard. “Let’s go home. And maybe you will even agree to be my cop car now.”

Barricade didn’t move for a moment. “Yeah. Maybe I will, Dorothy.”

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade is on his first day of being a police car and happens to have a car chase and arrested Bumblebee in one day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

“Congratulations Officer Haven, you finally got a new car and didn't instantly hate it.”

Dorothy stared at Aaron from across the room as he made the remark. Since she was leaning up against Barricade, she felt his engine rumble, clearly giving his opinion on the man's comment. Most of the F1 team was surprised that the woman actually got a new car, and it looked like it was brand new. They all doubted that it was new, since Dorothy never got new car, but made them look that way. The new cop car in the hangar seemed a lot more welcoming than the old Dodge Charger did. Everyone commented on it, except for Mayrin Walker of course.

“So she got a new car.” the woman's obnoxious tone seeped into the room and Dorothy groaned. “She got that thing out of a scrapyard, probably too cheap to actually buy a new one.”

“Actually, Walker,” Dorothy commented. “I got this car as my birthday present three weeks ago and I think it turned out wonderful. And this car is better than any car that you'll ever own.”

“And why’s that, Ms. Mechanical Genius? You steal it from a test lab?” the F1 captain seethed at Dorothy from across the room where she was fixing her makeup.

Dorothy sighed and looked at her phone's watch. Her shift was in ten minutes, so she needed to go if her and Barricade were going to get to their patrol spot on time. “Nope.” she answered as she walked back to the driver’s side and stepped in. “Because my car is mine. I worked on this beaut for three weeks and you've never touched a washer fluid tank cap. That's what makes my car better than yours.”

As soon as she was seated, she felt as the seat belt snaked over her lap and body and tighten. Then, the car pulled forward and exited the hangar as the snob of a woman sneered at them in annoyance. The police car drove out of the police station and down the road to the location Dorothy put in the GPS earlier. The radio was on the Old Rock station and Queen was playing, which Dorothy happily sung along to as she drove down to her shift spot. Suddenly, the radio quieted as Barricade made a comment.

“I see why you hate her.” Barricade mentioned as he moved into the far left lane of the highway, trying to avoid traffic up ahead. “And thank you for calling me beautiful.”

“You're welcome.” Dorothy replied as she looked over at the side of the road to see where her patrol spot was. She nudged Barricade’s steering wheel and told him were to turn so that they could park behind the exit sign. Perfect place for a police car to sit because no one notices you until they pass you and people have a tendency to speed when there are exits because the lines open up. Barricade parked himself and the two of them sat there as Dorothy calling in for her shift and leaned back in the seat.

“So this is your job?” Barricade asked, watching as different cars drove by and reading their speeds. “You just sit here and watch cars drive by? Seems boring.”

“That’s the boring part, Barricade.” Dorothy commented, watching the cars as well. “But when someone speeds and they instigate chase, then it gets fun. They don’t call me ‘Speedy’ for nothing, you know.”

“‘Speedy’? I saw your record on the police database, so that makes sense.” Barricade asked, suspicious of the nickname as first. “But they’re going to have to call you ‘Triple Speed’ after this. Cybertronians drive faster than normal Earth vehicles. We just slow down so we don’t get chased by the cops. That’s sounds really redundant now because I am the cops.”

“That brings up a question I have.” Dorothy asked the police car. “If you were a Decepticon and you had friends probably, then why didn’t anyone help you against Starscream. There are more of you, correct?”

Dorothy felt the seat belt tighten and the car’s engine stall for a moment. She knew that he probably wouldn’t like to answer the question. It had only been a week since Barricade had his breakdown in the hangar and he was trying to avoid the topic of the Decepticons in general. Dorothy had been even more upset to hear that the police car had nightmares about the way Starscream had tortured him. The Saleen Mustang was very quiet for the days after it, until he made the final decision to stay with the woman and become her police cruiser.

After a period of silence between the two, Barricade finally spoke again. “Decepticons don't really do ‘friends’. He had teammates, subordinates, and officers. There was a strict hierarchy and no one really like each other enough to become friends. I just stuck with the soldiers who were around my rank.”

“One more thing we have in common.” Dorothy commented. “I don't have friends other than the guys at the F1 hangar and Darren. I moved from all the way on the east coast to become a police woman, so I left all my friends back at home.” Dorothy’s expression saddened as she remembered a lot of the things she left behind in with her parents. The only thing she didn’t leave behind was her brother and her most precious items. Her parents urged her to bring more, but going to college and then to the police academy was going to take some time and she wouldn’t be able to keep it all with her anyway.

“Well,” Barricade spoke somewhat happily. “At least I’ve got you. But you wouldn’t last a day as a Decepticon.”

Dorothy faked being offended by the comment. “And how would that be?”

“Megatron would probably kill you the minute you got to base, if Starscream didn’t do it first. And you’re human, so that’s one outlier others can’t really overlook.” Barricade explained, snarking his remark at the woman sitting in his driver’s seat. “You’re also too nice to be a Decepticon.”

“Oh sure.” Dorothy retorted. “Give me a wrench and I could disassemble Starscreech in his sleep. See if the Decepticons would kill me then.”

Barricade barked out a laugh, the interior of the car shaking a bit as did so. “In that case, Megatron would make you an honorary Decepticon. The guy hates Starscream more than the Autobots do. You’d be his new SIC.”

Dorothy and Barricade let out some laughs for a while, joking about many things about the Seeker. Dorothy was also paying attention to how talking about Starscream like this was helping him relax and sort out his problems. He seemed to have no problem making remarks and other snide comments about the other Decepticon, which made the woman believe this was his method of venting his problems.

“So you keep mentioning an Autobot called ‘Autobit’. What’s the deal with that one?” Dorothy asked, taking her coffee out of the cupholder and taking a sip from it.

“‘Autobit’?” Barricade asked, confused on the matter for a bit before laughing to him. “Oh yeah. The Autobot scout. His designation is Bumblebee.”

Dorothy almost spit out her coffee when she heard the name. She caught herself thought, and swallowed her drink before audibly laughing about it. Barricade joined into the laughter. “Wait. So you mean, the alien robot from another planet is named after a tiny pollen-collecting insect from Earth!? How does that make any sense at all?!”

“That’s what I was trying to figure out!” Barricade exclaimed back. “I’m thinking when we took on the human languages into our memory cores, his name got translated into that since his actual one can’t be transcribed into English. Bumblebee was probably the closest thing to his actual name.”

“So, why doesn’t he just try and transcribe it again?” the woman asked, taking another sip of her coffee.

“His human friend likes it.” the police car informed. “Bumblebrat’s the guardian of Ladiesman217, who is the human liasion for the government. The mech lives with him, but they have a base somewhere in California.”

“California?” Dorothy asked, wondering why the police car was all the way out in the middle of Arizona. “Then why were you dropped off here?”

“Starscream has these other Seekers.” Barricade began to explain. “His trinemates. Basically, they’re like brothers. And the one who dropped me off, Skywarp, isn’t the brightest bulb in the box. He can warp places, using a warp generator, and he didn’t know the difference between California and Arizona apparently. As I said, not the brightest bulb in the box.”

“I mean, he was close.” Dorothy commented. “Arizona’s a state over from California, and both have deserts in them. And Starscream wanted you to be dropped off in the middle of the desert in California why?”

Barricade didn’t speak for a while. Dorothy then realized that she must of said something wrong and he froze up. She placed a hand on the dashboard and patted it. So, she just sat and waited for Barricade to come back. She felt the seat belt tighten around her again and let Barricade breath it out. The woman remembered the one night that Barricade had a particularly bad nightmare and wouldn’t talk to her for a good hour. She felt the car slowly vent in and out, trying to regain his grip on reality for a moment.

“He...um...he was planning to drop me off where the Autobots would find me and capture me.” Barricade finally spoke up. He was still shaking a bit and Dorothy sighed in remorse for the Decepticon. He took a moment to calm himself before speaking again. “The Autobots would have scrap me for parts, so he was planning on making everyone else think that I die by their servos. They would have punished me.”

“Why would they do that?” Dorothy asked, tilting her head in curiosity. “From what you’ve told me about Optimus Prime, he doesn’t seem like the...um...bot to do such a thing.”

“That’s not the point.” Barricade stressed. The vehicle started to tremble a bit more. “The others would go against him. Bumblebee wouldn’t care if I lived or not. Their weapons specialist would probably be the one to scrap me in the first place, and their medic wouldn’t agree to fix me. They would all be just like Starscream and through me in a cell, and tear me apart and-”

“Barricade, breathe.” Dorothy cut him off, rubbing her hand on the car’s shaking dashboard. He stopped panicking and Dorothy could hear him take strangled breaths in and out of his vents. The seat belt tightened again, and the woman made sure to hold the webbing of the belt. “The Autobots are not here. The Decepticons are not here. Starscream is not here. It’s just you and me. No one is going to scrap you.”

Barricade took a couple of moments to calm back down. He had been getting better at doing that. Over the past week, Dorothy had managed to being his safe person, as crazy as it sounded. He could take about anything to her and she wasn’t criticized him for it. She let him rant about things that bothered him and things that didn’t. The Decepticon only then decided to become her police car. Not for the protection from the government, but for the sanity the human provided for him.

“Thanks.” he mumbled out, not completely sure of his voice yet.

“You’re welcome.” she answered back, leaning back in the driver’s seat to watch the car’s go by.

 _::This is Officier Morrison from Checkpoint Five. ‘Speedy’, do you copy?:_ : the police radio called through the speakers in the car. Dorothy sat back up at the mention of her nickname and picked up the call from the screen inside Barricade’s front.

“This is ‘Speedy’.” Dorothy answered back. “What’s the situation?”

 _::We’ve got a roadrunner coming up on your checkpoint. He’s going 100 on a 75.::_ the officer reported and Dorothy chuckled herself.

“Description?” she asked, looking out the window and down the road for any signs of a speeding car coming up.

_::’07 Chevy Camaro, yellow with black racing stripes. California license plate. The driver is male and has curly brunette hair from what I saw. Seemed to be casing another car down the highway, but didn’t get a good look.::_

Barricade revved his engines and Dorothy smirked as she saw the descripted car zooming down the highway. She closed the call for a moment and looked at Barricade’s rear view mirror. “We gonna catch ourselves an Autobot today, ‘Cade?”

Barricade scanned the car as it drove by and the reading came up all positive for Cybertronian energy. It was indeed the Autobot scout and his human friend. The police car turned on his sirens and revved his engines again. “Let’s go get Bumblebutt.”

Dorothy barked a chuckle and sighed back on again. “This is ‘Speedy’, going to purse the Flight of the Bumblebee. Expect a teenager and his sports car back at headquarters in ten minutes.”

 _::Roger that.::_ the officer responded and signed off.

Barricade pulled himself out of his spot on the side of the road and Dorothy turned the road on to her favorite station. The two then went speeding off down the highway after the Autobot and his human friend with _Highway to Hell_  playing in the background. Who didn’t love some good chase music?

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Bumblebee become very frantic as the signature off another Decepticon popped up in his radar. It also didn’t help that Sam was yelling at him so slow down and of course, he wasn’t listening to a word coming out of his best friend’s mouth. The signature popped up when they passed an exit sign and the yellow Autobot almost stall his engine as the reading become all too familiar as he heard sirens coming from behind him.

“Bee!” Sam yelled, grabbing onto the sides of his seat. “Slow down! We need to pull over for the cops car! We’re going to get a ticket!”

 _::There’s a Decepticon tailing us, Sam.::_ Bumble said through the radio as the cop car continued to follow him into a more crowded area of the highway.

“What?” Sam argued. “Weren’t we just following one?”

 _::Apparently one decided to join the fun.::_ Bee told the human, weaving in between the cars in front of him so he could get off at the next exit.

Sam seemed to finally realized that he recognized the police car behind him, even if it did have a different set of siren lights and paint coat on it. “That’s Barricade, isn’t it?”

 _::Affirmative.::_ Bee found the next exit and drove off it at a high enough speed to lose the cop car on the highway. The Camarao drove down the ramp and into the city of Phoenix, where a route ran along the underside of the bridge they just exited. The Chevy didn’t wait for the light change as he saw the police car drift down the exit ramp and come up on their tail again.

Cars moved out of the way as the police car continued to tail them throughout the city. Sam was continuing to freak out when he realized that they didn’t have the diplomatic on Bee yet, since the government was getting them renewed. Bumblebee swerved around more cars in an attempt to lose the Decepticon in the mess of traffic, but the police car seemed to have disappeared from behind them. The Autobot slowed, slightly confused on where the police car went.

“Did we lose him?” Sam asked as Bee turned down around street and slowly rolled up it. Suddenly, the sound of skidding tires sounded from in front of them, and the police car that was once chasing them from behind was no speeding down the side street in front of them. Sam’s eyes widen in pure terror and started tugging at Bee’s steering wheel. “Bee! Bee, reverse! Bee, go in reverse!”

Obliging to the command, Bee immediately switching into reverse and pressed down on the gas to drive backwards out of the street. The police car followed at the same speed it came around the corner at, but Bee skidded to the side and bolted back onto the main road towards the center of Phoenix. Sam gripped back onto the seat and held on like his life depended on it, which it did at the moment.

“Bee, we are going to die!” Sam yelled as they swerved around another corner.

 _::No we are not!::_ Bumblebee tried to reassure him as they continued driving down the street. _::Barricade is just being very persistent today!::_

“I hope your-where’d he go?” Sam suddenly turned around to find that the police car had disappeared again from behind them. Bee scanned the area to find that the police car had actually disappeared from the radar and didn’t show up on any of the scanners the scout had activated. Sam sat back in the seat and stared out the window as he silent thought about what just happened. “Should we call Optimus?”

 _::MabyeeEEEEE.::_ Bee’s statement became screeched as he slammed on the breaks. In front of him was the police car sitting there as the rest of the street was blocked off from the traffic light. Sirens could be heard from behind the Chevy and Bee finally realized what happened. He had been herded into a blocked off road where he couldn’t escape from without causing civilian casualties. The darned ‘Con finally got him and with the police of all things. _::Um...this was unexpected.::_

“You don’t say?” Sam argued back, staring at the police car with an immense amount of fear. Four more cop cars pulled up behind them and four officers got out of their cars with guns and all. Sam sighed and sinked into his seat, regretting going with Bee on this case when he could be home. “So, you sure this is Barricade?”

Bee hesitated to answer as he saw the driver’s side door of Barricade pop open and a human step out of the car. The police officer shut the down and sauntered over to Bee’s driver side window and lightly tapped on the glass. Sam rolled down the window to come face to face with a female officer where a badge that said “Highway Patrol” and a pair of sunglasses on. She had a very short hair cut and had a large smirk on her face.

“Hey there kid.” she said almost too happy. “You know how fast you were going?”

“Um...wasn’t really...paying attention, ma’am.” Sam choked out, giving her an innocent look, hoping she wouldn’t go too hard on him for being a kid.

“Well, lucky for you, I can tell you that you were going 25 miles over the speed limit on the parkway and maybe, I don’t know, 45 miles over on the main road.” she said, nonchalantly. “This is a nice car. You testing out its horsepower?”

“Um…” Sam really didn’t know what to say at this point.

“Sadly, ignoring to pull over to a police officer when speeding is against the law.” the woman said, leaning against the car and tipping her glasses down. “As much as I like the choice in car, and it is a beautiful one at that, I’m gonna have to ask you to get out of the car and step into mine.”

“I’m not getting a ticket?” Sam asked, trying to stall for a bit of time to compose himself.

“You are, kid.” the woman said, taking her handcuffs out of her belt and unlocking the car from the inside by reaching through the window. “A one way ticket to the police station so you can call your parents to tell them to come pick you up and pay your fine.”

Bee mentally sighed as Sam had to get out of the car and get arrested by the police. He truly thought that the police car behind them was Barricade. He suddenly felt a metal boot get put on his back tire and sighed. How that scrap was he going to explain this to Prime? Ratchet was probably going to hit him with a wrench. He looked at the police car as it drove away and noticed something that he didn’t catch while he was driving.

There was a Decepticon symbol on the spot of the truck with the Mustang logo should have been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now the question is: who drove, Barricade or Dorothy?


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam gets arrested and Optimus gets called, Barricade and Bumblebee have a weird chat down in the parking lot, and Dorothy is having too much fun enjoying it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

“Miss, please, I was speeding for a good reason.”

“Oh I’m so sure.”

“Please I need to...um...get to the airport to pick up my parents!”

“Well you gonna have to call them to take a taxi to the police station because I have the power to raise your fine since you feel the need to back talk me.”

“I didn’t mean it like that! I’m just really busy! I have a meeting to get to today!”

“I’ll be happy to call your boss too, kid.”

“Actually, wait, no. That’s a bad idea.”

“Why? Your boss hate speeders?”

“Uh...kinda?”

“Great. You’ll have to pay a ticket and get fired in the same day. Just your luck. Now, get out of the damn car already!”

Dorothy swore she was going to rip this kid in half. It had taken her a whole argument and grappling the teen out of the back of Barricade to get him into the police station. The kid was in handcuffs and still ran his mouth off like he didn’t even understand the situation he was in. Dorothy tapped the back of the police car, giving him the all-clear signal. Dorothy forcefully walked the kid into the police station and saw Barricade drive off probably to the parking garage under the station.

Sam Witwicky was the kid’s name, which she only knew because Barricade had told her during the chase, and Dorothy was starting to doubt the choice of making this teenager the representative of an alien race. Bumblebee, the kid’s car/guardian, wasn’t a bad driver so there was some respect there, but she knew the streets of Phoenix better than the Chevy did.

“If I pay the fine, can I have my car back at least?” the fifteen year old asked politely as he could when the handcuffs were digging into his wrists. “He...um...gets lonely by himself.”

Dorothy audibly laughed at that, not because it sounded insane, but because she knew it was probably true. “Don’t worry, kid. I’m gonna park my police car right in front of your Camaro. They can chat if they want.”

The teen’s expression dropped for a moment and he turned his head to look at her with concerned eyes. Dorothy couldn’t hold in her laughter for much longer and started laughing hysterically all the way across the main lobby of the station. “Wait...what?”

“Kid, I’m just messing with you.” Dorothy answered back, seizing her laughter. “And seriously, you’re not the first person I’ve met that thought cars could talk.”

The officer at the front desk looked up to see the teen in handcuffs standing next to a short woman and smiled at her. “Hey, Haven. What did you and your new cruiser catch?”

“Hey, DeMarco. Just some kid taking a joyride in his new car before he got to work.” Dorothy answered, giving the man her usual cocky expression. He scanned the kid and laughed at herself for a moment. “The kid’s no looker, but his car...it’s a real beaut.”

Sam stared at her with an expression of offense.

“What brand?” Officer DeMarco asked, leaning over the counter to continue the conversation where he could actually see the female officer who was speaking.

“‘07 Chevy Camaro. Yellow with custom painted black racing stripes. Saw it hit 60 in under 6. Very impressive car.” Dorothy rambled out the car’s stats. “This your first car, kid?”

“Um...me?” Sam asked, pointing to himself as much as he could with the handcuffs on. “Um...no actually. My first car was a ‘97 Chevy Camaro. I was able to...um...trade it in for a newer model.”

“Smart kid.” Dorothy commended and turned back to the officer. “Write me up a fine for speeding, resisting arrest and an account of verbal assault against an officer. Then, meet me in room 5 so the kid can call his supervisors.”

“You got it, ‘Speedy’.” the officer replied and went back to his computer.

Dorothy sighed and pushed the kid further into the police to await the arrival of either Sam’s parents or the government to show up to collect the kid. The kid had been giving her a weird look that entire time, like she knew something she wasn’t supposed to. The reason was that Dorothy did know something that she wasn’t supposed to know about. She smiled as she couldn’t wait to hear the story that the government was going to come up with to get this one out of a fine.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Bumblebee sat in dread at his back wheel twitched and his sensors were still going haywire over the fact that he did in fact see a Decepticon symbol on the back off the police car. How could have be been so stupid?! Of course Barricade was hiding with the government so the Autobots wouldn’t be able to detect him without them being accused of inspecting the local enforcement. And in Arizona, it was close enough to California to keep an optic on Sam and be far enough away to not be seen. The yellow Camaro revved his engine in protest as he tried to drive forward again, but failed since the boot on his back wheel was keeping him in place. Luckily, there were no humans around to hear this.

The Autobot scout sat in the parking garage underneath the police station for a good ten minutes before the sound of engine came down the row he was sitting in. And there was no mistaking that engine purr. Bee sat in silence as the Saleen Mustang rolled down the row of cars and the phrase, “To Enslave and Punish” scrolled across the scout’s view. The police car stopped and pulled back into an empty spot straight across from him. The car stopped and sat there, staring.

“Fancy finding you here, Bumblebutt.” the police car mused at the Autobot, enjoying the sight of his rival captured by the humans he was working with. “How’s it feel to be captured again?”

 _::Shut it, ‘Con!::_ Bee hissed at the police car, shrinking back further on to himself to keep his distance. _::And my name’s Bumblebee.::_

“Ok, Bumblebutt.” Barricade mocked, the Decepticon smiling to himself at the amount of aggravation he was causing. It felt good. “Let’s have a chat. How’s Ladiesman217 doing? He and his female human still dating?”

 _::That’s none of your business!::_ Bee argued.

Barricade chuckled a bit. “My, my, you’ve gained a temper since the last time I’ve seen you. Did Ironhide finally teach you how to have more bark than your bite?”

Bee started growling at the Decepticon and Barricade stifled a laugh. The Camaro and Saleen sat there for a few moments staring down each other until Bee gave up, being that the car chase had taken a lot out of him and he didn’t want to deal with Barricade’s scrap right now. _::You’re sick and demented.::_

Barricade gasped sarcastically and laughed, driving a little closer to the Camaro. “Oh, Autobit, your words hurt me so.”

 _::Stop acting like Starscream, Barricade.::_ Bee spat at the police car.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment as Barricade did. The Decepticon’s engine revved loudly as he burnt his tires and charged at the Chevy. Bee immediately flinched and tried to transformed, but couldn’t because of the car boot. The Autobot couldn’t back away either, so he was stuck. Barricade still drove straight at him and all the energon in Bee’s helm dropped all the way down to his tanks as he realized he might actually get hurt. Bee closed his optics, waiting for an impact that never came.

After a few seconds, Bumblebee opened his optics again to find that Barricade didn’t hit him. The police car had stopped inches away from the Chevy’s hood and his frame was shaking with anger as his engine was still rumbling. Then, the Decepticon exploded on him. “ **Don’t you ever compare me to that fragger, Autobot! You’re lucky I have enough control to not kill you right now! If I hear another wise crack out of you about that Primus-foresarken Seeker, I will shoot you in the spark chambler and will leave you to rust!** ”

Bumblebee made what sounded to be a whimper and sank down on his wheels. Barricade glared at the Autobot, but couldn’t find himself to yell at him again. The whimper stuck him as the little brat backing down and surrendering, but it made him feel weird. Just like the time Dorothy was called in on her day off all those weeks ago, that same feeling in his tank resurfaced. He hated it because I made him want to apologize.

The two cars sat in their spots, Barricade having moved back to his own parking spot, and sat in silence as the two didn’t interact. Finally, Bumblebee gained enough courage to speak up. _::Why are you here?::_ It came out as a whisper since Bee was still slightly frightened by the police car.

Barricade seemed to be out of it, but snapped his attention back to the yellow and black Autobot as the words came out of his mouth. “ **What?”** The Decepticon’s tone still was cold and harsh. Bee’s frame started shaking and the Autobot couldn’t seemed to speak anymore. Barricade sighed and relaxed a bit to allow himself to be calmer. “What did you say, Bumblebutt?”

 _::I--I s-said, or u-um asked, why y-you w-were here?:_ : the youngling stammered out.

Barricade was in a sort of shock. Did he really just scare the Autobot? After all the cockiness and attitude that the scout placed forward, the only other person he’d seen Bumblebee cower at was his own medic, Ratchet. But the police car sighed and realized that maybe exploding at the bot he just arrested wasn’t the best way of doing things. Barricade decided it was time to play “nice cop” for a while.

“Hey.” Barricade said as calmly as possible as he rolled forward. The Chevy shook even more, but Barricade still put his plan into action. He stopped right in front of the youngling and sighed as he pulled forward enough to be touching hoods. The Autobot froze all together and Barricade could feel the younger bot’s vents hitch as if he was waiting for something to happen. “I’m sorry if I scared you, Bumblebutt, but the comment you made wasn’t very nice.”

 _::I-I’m s--sorry.::_ Bee apologized, trying to stop himself from shaking, but failed as he didn’t know what Barricade was touching him. He wanted to back away so badly, but he couldn’t since he was surrounded by cars.

“It ok, Autobit. Just repeated what you asked me.” Barricade stated and waited patiently for the scout to compose himself. The police car backed away slowly and moved out of the Autobot’s personal space to let him vent.

Bumblebee took some time to stop shaking so much and recontroled his frame. His vocoder was still a little shaky, but he tried to sound like his usual cocky self. _::W-Why are you here, Barricade? Shouldn’t you be with Starscream on his revenge plan?::_

Barricade’s engine revved again and Bee fell back into the shaking and trembling mess he was a few seconds ago. The mention of Starscream’s name set Barricade off again, but he calmed himself again as he saw the scout was placed back into fear. Again, that feeling down in his tanks resurfaced and Barricade growling in frustration. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but the Seeker just...ticks me off, ok? Can we agree that we won’t say his name anymore?”

The yellow and black scout froze again in shock as he heard Barricade apologize to him. Apologize, of all things! Did he get sent into a different universe were Barricade became nice all of a sudden? What in all of Cybertron was going on? Bumblebee stared at the police car for a good few minutes as he tried to decide if this was the real Barricade or not. The phrase was there. The paint coat was a little different, but that was because he was part of the Arizona police now. The siren lights were a different shade, but other than that, nothing stood out that this wasn’t the Decepticon back from Mission City that tried to kill Sam.

“Um...Cybertron to Bumblebutt.” Barricade said, wondering why the scout had gone so silent. “You in there?”

 _::You...you apologized. To me. For being...mean and scary.::_ Bee explained slowly, trying to see if the police car could understand what had happened.

“I did?” Barricade said for a moment, not remembering that at all. The Decepticon replayed the last few minutes and saw that he did actually apologize to the little scout. He mentally cursed himself for letting that slip. He also blamed it on Dorothy. Her personality was rubbing off on him. “Huh, I did. Would you look at that? Guess the whole ‘good cop’ thing is working out if it’s disturbing you so much.”

 _::Who are you?::_ Bee immediately asked the police car, wary of who he was taking to.

Barricade sat there in a little bit of a stupor. Did the Autobot not think it was him because of who he was acting? “Uh...it’s still me. Your not-so-friendly neighborhood Decepticon, Barricade. How can I be of service?”

 _::What did the humans do to you?::_ Bee asked. _::Did they experiment on you and make you be a cop car?::_

Barricade chuckled in amusement. “Aww, you care. How touching.”

 _::That’s not what I meant Barricade.::_ Bee stated plained, trying to get over the amount of sass the Decepticon was giving off right now. _::You’re acting out of character...for you. It’s been only one month after the Battle at Mission City and you went from ‘I’m going to murder everything in my sight’ to ‘I’m a police officer now’.::_

“I did not try to kill everything in my path.” Barricade argued. “I was tasked for looking for the glasses and I did my task. It’s not my fault that Witwicky found me intimidating.”

 _::Then why are you being so nice?!::_ Bee shouted, releasing some of his pent up anger over that fact that he still couldn’t move. _::Is this some mind trick you’ll pulling on me to make me feel weak?! Did the humans damaged you and make you crazed?! Why...why…::_

Barricade finally sensed that something was wrong with Bumblebee. He did a quick scan and saw something alarming. The scout had been driving for almost six hours without stopping and had to run from Barricade on his way here. The yellow and black scout was extremely tired and wasn’t awake enough to fight with the Decepticon. The cop car sighed and drove off, leaving the Autobot there for a second.

Bee watched as the police car drove away. He wanted to sleep, he really did, but with Barricade acting so weird, he couldn’t risk him being attacked. Suddenly, a large mesh tarp was throw over the Chevy and Barricade pulled up into view. “You really are an idiot, Bumblebee. Get some recharge. I’ll leave you alone so you don’t have a spark attack.”

Bee wanted to protest, but his processor wanted to listen to the ‘Con. The scout’s optics closed and he fell into a much needed recharge.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Dorothy watched at the tall man walked into the room and stay down at the table. He had black hair with blue highlights and his eyes seemed to be the same color. He was wearing a blue jacket with red flames, copying the look of his cargo pants. His shirt was black, along with his army boots and he seemed very stoic. She walked over to the door to close it, seeing the large Peterbilt semi outside and sighed, knowing who she was about to have a meeting with.

“I’m guessing you’re Mr. Witwicky’s boss.” Dorothy stated, quirking an eyebrow at the older man.

“That would be correct.” he stated, his baritone voice booming. She realized that Barricade was right about him sounding like a leader. “My name is Orion Price. I am the head of the government vehicle testing department that Sam works for.”

“And do you always call your employees by their first name, Mr. Price?” Dorothy retorted with a sense of professionalism that she didn’t show often. The man seemed to look at her in a bit of shock, but Dorothy chuckled as she relaxed a bit. “Don’t worry. We do it here, too. I’m sure Sam here can explain what happened to you on the way back to the facility. Are you aware he was testing one of the cars today?”

“Yes.” Orion answered. “He was leased the car for recreational purposes.”

“And does joyriding down a highway count as a recreation in your business?” the woman asked again, smirking at the man.

“No. It does not.” he answered, strenly.

“Then I hope that you indeed entail on disciplining the boy when you do return to California, yes?” Dorothy asked another question. She was having way too much fun with this. The man gave a confused nod and Dorothy smiled. “Excellent. I will see that you get all of the paperwork for the fine and the release forms for Mr. Witwicky.”

“Thank you, Officer Haven.” Mr. Price answered, getting up from the table and walking over to Sam, who was still looking at Dorothy with a weird expression.

Dorothy got up herself and stretched. The chase was one of her best, especially because Barricade had let her drive. At first, the police car was against letting her drive, but since she knew the city better, he let her go ahead. Between drifting down the highway exit and making 90° turns into side streets, Barricade ended up enjoying the rush after a while. The police force had cataloged her as one of the most dangerous officers in the force because she never lost a speeder. Barricade being a sentinet car made it easier on her part.

Dorothy watched as the two man walked out of the room and closed the door behind them. She sighed and picked up her phone, dialing Barricade from the garage. “Hey, ‘Cade. How was the chat with Flight of the Bumblebee?”

 _::Your personality is rubbing off on me. I played “good cop”.::_ Barricade answered, sounding annoyed.

“Cool.” Dorothy answered. “Just had a chat with OP and he’s easy to confuse. It was too much fun.”

 _::I scared Bumblebutt and he thinks you broke me.::_ the police car answered.

Dorothy laughed. She was happy Barricade was trying, at least, to be nicer to others. He was healing, and the human female could feel it. It was good. It was very good. Barricade was healing and she couldn’t be more happier.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ratchet basically blows a fuse that Bee and Sam got arrested.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Sam had never seen Ratchet so mad at Bee before.

The lime green Hummer as vivid when he, Bee and Optimus returned from Phoenix after the trip to the police station. Bee was remarkably silent on the drive back, and even made Sam drive for some reason. Optimus said he would give a fair punishment when they got back to the military base they had secured from Keller. And when Sam pulled into the main grounds of the base, boy was Ratchet pissed. The medic was hysterical to the point where Ironhide had to hold him back from denting Bee before the little scout was smashed inwards.

Bee, for that matter, was still immensely tired from the previous few days. Also, the interaction with Barricade still confused him greatly. He wasn’t really sure what was really or not anymore. And Sam was there, too, so at least he had his best friend to vouch for him. Bumblebee had only transformed when Ratchet was far enough away from him where he couldn’t get hit by a flying wrench. The two of them walked into the main hangar and stood before Optimus, who looked beyond tired at this point.

“So, can someone explain what in all of Cybertron happened in Phoenix?” Ratchet finally spoke up, interested to hear who Bee and Sam go arrested.

“I would as well.” Optimus answered as calmly he could. “Bumblebee.”

Bee froze. He didn’t really want to answer since it would make him sound like he was delusional. But Optimus did address him, so he had to answer at someone. The yellow scout looked at Sam and then at each of the bots and sighed. _::I...um...got a life signature of a Decepticon and decided to go after it.::_

Optimus sighed into the palm of his servo. Of course Bee would go after a Decepticon. It was all in good intentions in the first place, he hoped. But unfortunately, Ratchet seemed to disagree. The medic walked forward and whacked Bee upside the back of the helm and groaned. “You couldn’t have waited until after we received the diplomatic plates from Keller to go speeding? You younglings! I swear I’m going to keep you on base for a whole month!”

Bee winced at the blow, grabbing the back off his helm. That seemed to answer his question if he should tell them or not. The Camaro silently decided to stay quiet for the rest of the conversation to avoid getting hit again.

“Well,” Sam spoke up, trying to come to his friend’s defense. “At least he didn’t crash into anyone. And it wasn’t exactly Bee going after it, but it going after us.”

Ironhide barked a laugh. “How the heck was that possible? Unless you two decided to walk into a Decepticon base, there shouldn’t be any ‘Cons around after the whole showdown at Mission.”

“Ironhide is correct, Sam.” Optimus commented, kneeling down to be at the boy’s height. “Please explain how exactly it happened.”

“Um…” Sam started, placing his hands behind his back. “We were driving down the highway, on the way back from the airport because we needed to drop my parents off for their trip, and Bee’s radar picked on up. We were almost out of Phoenix too, but then it came after us. It chased us around the city and then the police stopped us at an intersection for speeding.”

Bee nodded in agreement as Ratchet and Ironhide exchanged glances. Optimus nodded as well and stood back up. “It seems that Starscream has put a plan into motion already. He must’ve received reinforcements after the battle of Mission City.”

Bee shifted on his pedes. He should tell them, but they would never believe him. Sam looked up at Bee and looked confused. “Bee, aren’t you going to say who was chasing us? I thought you would be all excited to.”

That’s when everyone started that the small bot with wide optics. The Chevy shuffled back a bit, holding up his hand in defense. Ironhide looked at him curiously. “Ya know the ‘con, Bee?”

“That means it was one from either before he travelled to Earth or one during the battle.” Ratchet commented, looking curiously at the youngling as well. “But none of the grounders in the battle survived.”

 _::He wasn’t in the battle.::_ Bee answered, finally gaining enough courage to speak out after the previous blow to the helm he got. Everyone’s attention changed to the scout. Bee gulped audibly and sighed as he realized he wasn’t getting away from this. _::It was...Barricade.::_

“What?!” all of them, except Sam and Optimus, cried out. The scout’s human friend just looked confused, as did Optimus by the sudden announcement.

“How?!” Ratchet complained. “The mech wasn’t even in the battle! The only move he made was trying to kill Sam when trying to get the glasses. Unless the grounder decided to accept Starscream’s command, then there wouldn’t be any reason he would have chased you.”

“Ratchet, old friend,” Optimus interrupted the medic’s rant. He placed a servo on the mech’s shoulder, when made the Hummer stop shaking with anger. “I think we should let Bumblebee explain what happened first.”

Ironhide huffed. “Oh yeah. Ah’m so sure they had a lovely chat. Betcha Bee is gonna scrap the metal the first chance he gets.” Ironhide leaned back and plopped himself down on a metal crate and watched as Ratchet did the same. All of the bots seemed to follow in movement, except Bee, who was still standing. “Come on, kid. Start talking.”

Bee sighed and started to recall everything that happened. _::Well like Sam said, we were heading down the highway and Barricade’s signature popped up behind us. He had his sirens on and started chasing us through the city until we reached an intersection blocked off by him and other police cars. That’s-::_

“So he’s working with the police then?” Ironhide asked, interrupting Bee’s story. “He’s probably working with them to hide. It seems too smart for Starscream to plan out, though.”

Optimus cleared his voice box, making the group of mechs start at him. “Ironhide, maybe we should let Bumblebee finish his story before making assumptions that this is Starscream’s plan. The Decepticons have been hiding for a two months now and wouldn’t show themselves like Bee is describing Barricade had. Something must have happened.”

 _::Anyway,::_ Bumblebee continued. : _:I thought that maybe we lost him at first because there was an officer that came out to talk to Sam and arrest him, but then I saw an insignia on the back of the truck as they drove away.::_

“So I was right!” Ironhide explained. “See? Starscream’s usin’ the humans against us. Let’s go find him before he does somethin’ else stupid.”

Ratchet pulled down the GMC as soon as he saw the weapons specialist try to get up walk out of the hangar, guns blazing. The Hummer really didn’t know if he was as enraged with the youngling at this point, but something was going to happen. But, he couldn’t risk the Topkick going to start a ruckus and calling out the ‘Cons when they barely had a base set up themselves. The medic hit the gunner over the helm with his wrench and went back to focusing on Bee’s story.

 _::So I was in the parking garage of the police station because they booted my back tire and towed me there.::_ Bee described, using his hands to describe his emotions better. _::And who comes down, but Barricade. He parks in front of me and he starts a conversation. Like, a normal conversation that Sam and I would have. I was really sure that it was Starscream put him up to, but whenever I mentioned his name, the ‘Con just exploded on me like Ratchet does.::_

“Really?” Sam asked. Barricade having a normal conversation with Bee was weird by itself, but him getting upset about Starscream? What had happened down there while he was being scowled by that officer in the holding room? “What about Starscream made him explode like that?”

 _::I told him he was acting like Starscream. And then he charged at me! I couldn’t move because of the boot, so I was sure he was going to run into me, but he didn’t.::_ Bee explained. _::He didn’t. Barricade stopped two inches away from my hood and started yelling at me like Ratchet would. It scared me a bit. I think he knew that he scared me too and did the weirdest thing!::_

“Wait, I scare you?’ Ratchet asked, earning a glare from Ironhide. “Ok, not a good question.”

 _::As I was saying,::_ the young scout continued. _::Barricade just backed off! He reversed back into his parking spot and was silent for a few minutes before I asked him some questions. His tone was still harsh, but I think he saw that too and calmed down. He asked really docile afterwards and even apologized to me.::_

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a minute here!” Ironhide called out with a confused look on his face. “The slagger apologized to ya?! Are you sure we’re takin’ about the same ‘Con?”

Bee nodded his answer. _::I’m sure it was him. Well, his paint coat and sirens were a little different, but it was him. I was so confused, though! I didn’t know if it was really him or not! And then, a bunch of sleepiness just rushed over me from nowhere! I was so tired from all the drive and the wheel boot was hurting my wheel, and I was so confused!::_

Suddenly, Optimus took notice to how much the young scout was venting. He was panicking and his vents were quick. The youngling was hyperventilating and extremely stressed about this interaction. The yellow and black Autobot had moved his hands to his helm and had moved back against the wall, as if he was going to fall over. Optimus stood up and reached out for the young scout to try and calm him down. “Bumblebee, please take a deep vent. Try to stay calm, please.”

Bumblebee didn’t seem to hear him and continued to rant. Barricade had really scared him, being that when he yelled at the young scout, his tone almost sounded like Megatron’s. The tone had resurfaced unwanted memories. _::He sounded like **him** when he yelled at me! And then he was acting all normal afterwards and I thought...I thought he was going to kill me in that garage when he drive off! But he didn’t! I’m so confused! He came back later with a tarp and placed it over me, telling me to get some sleep, and I thought he was going to kill me! But he didn’t and I fell asleep and I...I…::_

Optimus placed a servo on the scout’s shoulder, which seemed to snap him back into reality for a moment. He looked around to see that everyone was looking at him with a worried expression, even Sam was worried about his friend. Bee sighed and placed his helm down on his knee joints. He was so tired and stressed.

Ratchet got up finally and walked over, running a quick scan over the scout before checking his system. The medic hummed in agreement with the scans and sighed. “Bee, you need to go get some sleep. As much as I hate to agree, Barricade was right about you needing to take it easy. Your fuel reserves are low and you haven’t been getting enough sleep. Aren’t you refueling and getting recharge like you are supposed to?”

 _::I have. Just not as often...I guess.::_ Bee answered. _::I keep thinking about Jazz and...him, so I can’t sleep. I usually just stay up and guard Sam’s house until I have to drive him places.::_

Ratchet sighed, slightly agitated. The youngling was causing so much unnecessary stress for himself than needed. The war had done a lot to the kid, but Ratchet had already knew that the PTSD he had with his voice box was going to affect his recharge schedule and how much he recharged. With one arm, he lifted up the scout and helped him walk to the medical bay that the medic had set up recently. “Don’t worry, kid. I knew this was gonna happen at some point. But you need to listen to me for once and listen to you medic. Because medic know best.”

Bee nodded sleepily as he walked off. _::But...Barricade was working with the humans, Ratchet. Like, willingly almost. It was so strange. I asked him if the humans had done something to him and he denied it.::_

Ironhide stifled a laugh. “Since when did ya care about the fragger, Bee?”

Optimus held out his hand to Ironhide, signaling to leave the youngling alone for the time being. Bee had tried to be strong during the past two months after Jazz’s death, but had finally broke after this encounter with Barricade. Something happened in the garage with Barricade if the scout was describing the police car sounded like Megatron when he spoke and tried to attack him. “Ironhide, Bumblebee needs some time to regain his strength. The loss of Jazz and this apparent meeting with Barricade seemed to resurfaced some unwanted memories. We should further investigate with later when Bumblebee is feeling more content about the topic.”

“That fragger did something to Bee in that garage.” Ironhide spat out in anger. “Ah've never seen Bee act like that before. Ah swear the next time I see that Primus-forsaken police car, Ah’m gonna scrap him.”

“Hold your hostilities, Ironhide.” Optimus ordered the gunner, watching the mech release his cannons in a fit of aggression. “For now, we must figure out if Starscream is really planning something and if Barricade is still in the ranks. Only then may we seek out the Decepticon and start questioning.”

Ironhide huffed in disappointment, but retracted his weapons as he walked off further into the hangar. The black mech seemed to be a little more pissed than usual, probably concerned about Bumblebee’s wellbeing as much at Optimus and Ratchet were. He was the youngest on the team, so they all had to worry.

Sam stood silently as all the mechs dispersed. He had no idea that Bee wasn’t ok because he never really asked. He did feel bad that he was one of the main problems that Bee wasn’t sleeping alright. The teen felt that his friend show have been taking better care of himself, but knew that Bee was just doing his job as his guardian. Sam was going to follow Ratchet, but Optimus had stopped the boy before he could walk off.

“Sam, did Barricade interact with you at all during your time at the police station?” Optimus asked, kneeling down again to Sam’s level.

“Not really.” Sam answered, shrugging. The ride in the police car had been pretty silent except for the fact that the officer “driving” Barricade was blasting Queen the entire time. “I mean, when we got to the police station, she was acting pretty strange. I’m guessing she knew about Barricade then, since she mentioned that the police car was going to have a ‘chat’ with Bee.”

“Hmmm.” Optimus answered, thinking about his interaction with the female officer. She was pretty strict, almost like himself, but was seemingly staying more professional to her job. Although, the Prime couldn’t shake the feeling that the woman was playing with him, or “pulling his strings” as humans would say. “Officer Haven was acting differently to me than you have described.”

The sound of two men talking made the two turn to see Lennox and Epps walking into the hangar. Epps seemed to be looking at a picture of something on his phone and Lennox was commenting on it. “...and you wonder where she finds all these cars.” he said, half of his statement to far away to hear.

“She said a junkyard, I supposed her chief just bought her a new car for her birthday. I mean, you don’t just find a car like that in a junkyard.” Epps remarked, laughing a bit. Lennox joined into the laughter, but looked up to see Optimus and Sam standing there listening. His laughter dropped and he elbowed his comrade in the gut to get him to stop. Epps looked at him weirdly and looked over to see Sam and Optimus staring at them. “Oh. Hey Sam. Optimus, sir. We...um...weren’t interrupting anything, were we?”

“No, Epps.” Sam replied, looking a bit unsure. “We were just discussing my brief trip to Arizona. It was...fun to say the most.”

“Really? We have a friend that lives in Scottsdale.” Lennox mentioned, realising that he and Epps were just talking about her. “She called us a week ago and told us she just got a new car. She says she found it and fix it, but Epps and I know better that she brought got it for her birthday a month or so ago.”

“Yeah, but the person who got it for her most have been rich because that car has a nice enough engine to be a sport car.” Epps mused, seemingly sliding through pictures on his phone to find the one of the engine. “It has a V8 engine, 550 hp and a great transmission change. It might be faster than Bee even.”

“I see.” Optimus mused. The car did sound like a sport car that a scout or runner would choose if scanning for an alt mode. While Bumblebee did choose a Camaro, this car did sound equally pleasing to Sam when it was described by the expression on his face. “And your friend is a fan or cars?”

“Not really. She just knows how to fix them.” Lennox answered. “She’s like a rocket scientist when it comes to cars. Sadly, she left the university to go to the police academy. She was friends with Epps back in high school before he moved to California. She used to do all his math and physics homework.”

“What?! No.” Epps argued to his friend. “She did my math, physics and history homework. In one lunch period, too. I swear the kid could have won the nobel prize or something, but nope, she wanted to be a police officer and fix F1 race cars for a living.”

Sam looked at them with a bit of a shocked expression. This girl seemed to be like Mikaela when it came to cars. But of course, she was older and had gone to college already. He thought about it for a minute and started to put some things together. “She works for the police?” he asked. “And she got a new car in the past month? That’s weird because I think I was arrested by her yesterday.”

“Arrested?!” Epps yelled in shock. “What were you and Bee doing?! Speeding down the highway?”

“Yeah.” Sam answered, plainly. “And the officer at the front desk when we walked in mentioned something about her getting a new car a couple weeks prior. They also called her ‘Speedy’.”

Lennox and Epps both laugh in unison as the nickname popped up. “Yep, that’s her.” Lennox answered, still laughing a bit. “Never lost a car in a chase once. And I guess she can add Cybertronian car to the list now. Well, if she knew.”

Optimus seemed to now be on the same page as Sam was with the idea of Commander Epps’ friend being the officer aligned with Barricade. “May I see the photo of the new car?”

Epps stopped laughing and shrugged, moving the pictures on his phone again. “Sure. Here it is. I think it a Saleen Mustang, but I can’t tell by the dark blue paint coat.”

Optimus and Sam both looked at the photo and froze, seeing the car and instantly recognizing the car. The car was Barricade, paint coat and sirens in all, sitting inside a hangar filled with F1 cars and mechanic tools around him. Officer Haven was standing in the picture as well, making it a selfie, but something seemed off about the car in general. Optimus noticed it and took a closer look at the photo to see what he thought he saw. It shocked him to see it, too.

The police car had coolant leaking from its headlights and the frame was slightly blurred from shaking or trembling when the photo was taken. Barricade was either crying, or had been, which meant Bee’s comment about humans doing something to him seemed a little more plausible now.

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade has a really bad nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

_Barricade woke up in the cave again. He was again chained to the cavern wall in the most uncomfortable position and his back was aching and sore. He felt himself bleeding out again and his injuries placed in the spots that they would be if Dorothy never fixed them. He could feel all the pain as if it was real, but it wasn't. He was having another nightmare again, but of course, Barricade couldn’t tell._

_Every dream was different, but usually had one thing in common: Starscream tormenting the living hell out of him. And sometimes, it was just the voice of the Seeker in the dream, making fun and mentally breaking him down. They had been getting better, says Dorothy, but each one was different so Barricade never really believe that he would ever be normal again. But tonight’s dream seemed off, which was never a good thing._

_Barricade sat in that cell of a cave for what seemed like eons until the sound of the jet’s footsteps echoed off the wall. Barricade lifted his helm to see the Seeker, smirking as usual, walking down the long tunnel that lead to the main base. Barricade had tried to escape once, but it did not end well for him. The police car pulled at his bonds, growling at the Seeker as he walked closer._

_“Ah, my favorite little toy.” Starscream mused, sadistically. “Good to see you are awake for our next session.”_

_“Good frag yourself, fly boy.” Barricade seethed out, showing his defiance. Barricade had been doing that more often in his nightmares now. Telling the Seeker off usually got a different reaction out of the silver jet, but tonight, again, was different._

_“Defiant, are we?” Starscream asked, his surly tone echoing in Barricade’s head. It hurt to listen to, but there was no escape from the Seeker’s scratchy voice, no matter how hard he tried. “I see. If that is how we’re going to play, then I guess I’m going to have to join in on your ‘fun’.”_

_Suddenly, a shock of electricity surged through him and Barricade had to bite down on his teeth to keep from screaming. It burned and caused so much pain throughout his systems, but he knew if he reversed his screaming, then the Seeker would lose interest and move to something else. Another shock, and another, and several more followed after the first until Barricade was almost limp and stunned from the amount of voltage that was administered to his frame. Starscream chuckled darkly, tilting the police car’s helm up to look at him._

_“We going to shut up and obey, Barricade?” he asked, curling his digit so that the claw would press into the underside of his helm._

_“In...your dreams...you rotten...piece...of slag.” Barricade breathed out, having to stop multiple time so that his voice box wouldn’t turn into static or white noise._

_The Seeker sighed with a tone of disappointment. “That’s what I thought would happen. You seem to be a little more vocal today, Barricade. Hopefully, you’ll scream out as well.”_

_And just as the Seeker finished his sentence, Barricade felt something slice through his upper arm and tear into the plating, making a line where energon started to leak. Barricade cried out in pain as he felt the sharp object move across his plating, slowly and painfully. The Seeker’s expression of disappointment soon changed to glee as his little toy was finally pleading out. The silver jet did that to his other arm as well, drawing out another cry from the police car._

_Barricade grunted as the sharp object left his other arm. He felt the energon start leaking from his major lines and his nausea start the crawl into his tanks. The amount of energon that he had lost and the amount that was now pouring out of him made him want to purge, badly. But apparently, Starscream wasn’t done with the Decepticon youngling. Barricade perked up when he felt something grip onto his new wounds, in fear of what was to come._

_“Tell me, Barricade.” the Seeker asked, his tone cutting through the tension in the air like a sharp blade on plating. “Do you wish to save yourself from this eternal suffering? All you have to do and follow one simple rule. Call me you master, and I will set you free.” Barricade stared at the silver jet for a moment and then dropped his helm. He didn’t reply, not wanting to risk the Seeker getting what he wanted. But apparently, Starscream had other plans._

_A large voltage of electricity surged into his open wounds on his arms and he screamed. The police car screamed as the voltage caused all his plating and sensors to burn and tear in pain. After the electricity stopped, Barricade went limp and blacked out for a few seconds. He woke up to find his vision blurred and the vague shape of the Seeker standing in front of him, holding his weightless helm up._

_“See how a simple answer could have saved you all that pain.” the Seeker mused. He cupped the youngling’s helm and brushed a claw across Barricade’s cheek, acting almost innocent to his victim. Barricade was already tearing up from how much his frame hurt, and knew he couldn’t take much more until he passed out. “Now I am going to give you a gift, my little pet. What do you say?”_

_“I am not you pet!” Barricade yelled at Starscream, ripping his helm from the Seeker’s clawed grip and trying to move back as far as possible from him. Again, another shock surged through him and made the police car scream. He felt like his voice box was going to break, his vocal fizzing into static and his vision blurring again. His vents seemed to close up and suffocate him as the shock continued on._

_The torture ended again and Barricade gulped in a bunch of air, since his vents felt like they were being crushed. He gasped a bit and looked up at the Seeker with the little strength he had. “Now, what is the correct way to answer, my little pet?”_

_“Th--thank you, m-master.” Barricade gasped up, his voice turning to white noise and back._

_The Seeker hummed happily. “You’re very welcome, my little pet.” The jet moved away from the police car, stroking the top of his helm first to go retrieve the “gift” he had promised. Barricade felt disgusted his himself again, having to call the Seeker his master and pleading to not be tortured to death. He felt weak, defeated and most of all, not himself anymore. The Seeker did finally return with Barricade’s “gift” and Barricade froze with shock and fear._

_Starscream walked in, carrying an unconscious Dorothy in between two clawed digits._

_“Your gift, my precious pet,” the silver jet mused, holding out the small woman for Barricade to see. “is to watch as your little friend dies. She seems to be a pest of yours, so I decided to get rid of the problem at its core.”_

_“No. No. No! Please!” Barricade started begging, trying to reach forward to reach Dorothy. His arm burned, but he still tried to reach out for her. “Please, Starscream, I’ll do anything! Please, she has nothing to do with this! She doesn’t deserve to die! Starscream, master, please! Let her go! Please!”_

_“It seems my little pet has already learned to beg. How quint.” the Seeker stated, taking Dorothy back into his grip and walk to a far enough distance that Barricade could reach the woman if he tried. “Sadly, you are a disobedient pet that needs to be taught a lesson. So, a lesson I will teach.”_

_“Master, please!” Barricade was now tugging at his restraints, even though his arms hurt and his processor was telling him not to move. “Please, let her go! Don’t kill her! Kill me instead! I’m the problem! I am a disobedient pet. Whip me, shock me, cut me, do anything to me! But please, don’t hurt her!”_

_Starscream stopped to think for a moment. Barricade stopped pulling on his chains and started to whimper. He didn’t want Dorothy to die! She had nothing to do with this! She was his best and only friend. He only had her to help him survive. She was too kind and caring to die. She didn’t do anything to cause his. It was all his fault. He was the problem. He was the weak one, not her. Barricade slowly started to buy more and more into Starscream’s taunting words and names. He whimpered even louder to get Starscream’s attention again._

_Starscream finally looked up at Barricade and grinned like the Cheshire Cat would. “No.” was all he sat before he squeezed his servo and crushed Dorothy in in. Barricade could hear all of her bones crack and a tiny scream before everything stopped._

_“DOROTHY!”_

__✢✢✢✢✢✢

“DOROTHY!”

Dorothy stirred a bit when a shout echoed throughout the house. She was laying on her front, so he pulled herself up with her arms to look around her room to see nothing there. She sighed and was about to put her head back down onto the pillow when the sound of moving metal sounded from underneath her and something banged into the floor, shaking the woman’s room.

Which in turn, made Dorothy yelp and fall out of the bed entirely and hit her head on the floor. She groaned as she sat up, holding the stop where she banged her head and looked at the clock on her bedside table. It read 2:00am clear as day even though Dorothy’s vision blurred for a moment. She stood up, pressing one hand to her bed for balance herself, and sat back onto the bed.

“What the frag was that?” Dorothy mumbled to herself, not realizing that she used one of Barricade’s many repeated curse words. She listened for a second to hear something crash and bang underneath her room, along with a few short whimpers afterwards. Dorothy was about to grab a crowbar to go and beat the crap off whatever just broke into her garage, when she remember the only thing in the garage was her alien robot car from another planet. She relaxed and crashed back onto her bed, closing her eyes for a moment.

This alien robot car had also screamed her name at the top of his voice box and had probably just hit his helm on the ceiling of the garage.

Dorothy quickly sat back up and listen, as small whimpers were still echoing from the floor below here, along with a few curses. Dorothy sprinted downstairs, almost hitting her head on the door and tripping down the stairs as she ran to the garage to check on her friend. She opened the door to see Barricade, in his robot form, sitting on the floor of the garage with his helm in his servos and shaking like it was freezing in there. Which, if you must know, is impossible in the middle of the summer in a state like Arizona, so don’t start thinking that.

“Barricade?” Dorothy said softly, walking into the garage and closing the door behind her. This caused the cybertronian, she had learned to call them, jump in his spot and back away towards the garage door. He was still shaking and his optics were shining a dim light. He didn’t seem to focus on her, as all four of his crimson optics were scanning different parts of the room, as if he was checking for something.

This was not the first time this had happened. Barricade would have nightmares and transform in the middle of the night because his t-cog activated out of fear. But this had been the first time he had bumped his head on the ceiling of the garage. And this was also the first time he was actually disoriented by his dream so much. Dorothy was a little scared that this was more of a memory than a dream, but she was ready to talk about it, nonetheless.

“Barricade? You okay?” Dorothy repeated herself, but continuing. “You called my name and you’re a little unfocused right now. So, how about you come a little bit closer so we can talk. That sound good?”

“...Y-Yes, m--master.” Barricade stammered out, but didn’t move any closer to the woman. Dorothy froze a bit when he said that, never hearing that reply from him before. She never imagined hearing that kind of reply from Barricade of all people. But, she was surprised again when he said something else. “P-Please don’t h-hurt her...please.”

Dorothy sighed, realizing that he had one of those nightmares. It was touching to know that Barricade’s processor had finally seen her as someone to care about, but it was a little nerve-wracking hearing it out loud that someone in his dream had tried to hurt her. Barricade was probably still in the aftermath of whatever occurred, so Dorothy just needed to find a way to make him wake up a bit more. Of course, she knew the one thing that always worked.

Dorothy pulled out her phone, as she grabbed it with her when she bolted downstairs, and started playing _Don’t Stop Believin’_ by Journey. She placed her phone down on her workbench and wait a few minutes as the song played. Barricade’s trembling eventually stopped, along with the whimpering, and his optics all seemed to focus on the music now. He looked over at the woman over by the workbench and exhaled some air he must of been holding in. His face was covered with shock and relief more than happiness.

“Hey, Barricade.” Dorothy said calmly, letting the music still play in the background as she walked forward.

“Hey, Dorothy.” he replied simply, sitting himself down on the ground and staring at her a bit. “I’m...sorry if I woke you.”

“You want to talk about it while I wipe off all the coolant?” she asked, grabbing a old cloth from her toolbox.

“Yeah. I’ll give you a lift.” he commented back. Dorothy sighed in relief, happy to know that Barricade wasn’t broken again. This was the normal way things went. They chatted, Dorothy would usually wipe the coolant off of Barricade because he cried in his sleep, and then Dorothy would stay up for the rest of the night in Barricade’s front seat as the other got some sleep. But tonight, Dorothy knew that it was going to be more difficult to get whatever happened out of Barricade.

Dorothy stepped onto Barricade’s hand and he brought her up to his face, which was covered in a clear fluid that was still leaking from behind his optics. She sighed and her expression changed to one more a mother would show to her child that was upset. She smiled warmly and started wiping away the coolant. “‘Cade, you got to stop crying, or I’m never going to get this clean.”

“I’m sorry.” he apologized, his optics shuddering a few time to get the coolant to stop. It did, but Dorothy could still tell the Decepticon was upset. “This one was different.”

“I’ll say.” Dorothy remarked, wringing out the cloth and moving back to his face to wipe more off. “You call me ‘master’ and you looked like you were having a heart attack. Or spark attack, because you don’t technically have a-”

Barricade almost dropped Dorothy as his hand jerked out of its position and Dorothy slipped. She grabbed onto one of his claws and pulled herself back up to see Barricade looking at her with a worried expression, like she was going to disappear if he let her go. Dorothy sighed and moved back closer to his face, giving it a pat and stroking it a bit. “So it was one of those, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Barricade answered, avoiding optic contact with the human as he realized her looked slightly worried at him. “It was bad. And I mean like, it hurts so much I can still feel it.”

“What did he do this time?” Dorothy asked, wiping away the last of the coolant. “Other side, please.”

Barricade moved his hand over to the other side and then started with his reply. “He electrocuted me a bunch of times. My arms were cut open and then he electrocuted me again several times. I was drained of most of my energon and he mocked me. And that...that wasn’t the worst part.” Barricade seemed to freeze, the memory popping up again and a shudder shook his frame.

“Go on, ‘Cade.” Dorothy encouraged, wiping off most of the coolant in one motion. She was good at listening to others. One of the many things she had to do ever since she became a police officer. Listening to stories people tell on why they were speeding was part of her everyday job, so she had some experience. Dorothy did see a small smile of relief form on the cybertronian’s face before he continued, which made her happy, to say the least.

“He said he had a gift for me.” Barricade continued. “He shocked me until I called him my master, which I hated. But then, he brought you out. You were unconscious and I already knew what he was planning. I started begging him not to hurt you, even calling him ‘master’ to try and persuade him to not. You were innocent. You hadn’t done anything wrong. He said you were the core of the problem and he had to get rid of you. I begged for him not to. That I was the problem and it was all my fault. I said that I was weak and he should have killed me instead, but he crushed you. And I couldn’t do anything to save you.”

Dorothy stood there in shock for a bit. Barricade had started crying again, but Dorothy didn’t really care. She was crying a little bit, too. “Barricade, don’t ever say that about yourself. You are not weak in the slightly. I’ve seen police officers in a better condition than you were in cry for their mothers when you tried to kill me the first time we meet. Also, thank you for thinking that I’m innocent and I’ve done nothing wrong, but I’ve killed and severely wounded others just like you. But the one thing I do want to mention is that it doesn’t matter whether I died or not-”

“Yes, it does!” Barricade argued, interrupting her rant. “I can’t lose you, ok!? No one else wants me out there. The Decepticons all think I’m a traitor to the cause, the Autobots want to destroy me, and the government will dissect and experiment on me for the rest of my life. You’re like the carrier I’ve never had, and you’ve done everything for me. You fixed me and made me your friend even though I’m sure I don’t deserve it. You’ve giving me a home and give me a job when I never asked for it. I lost my only friends during the battle in Mission City. I don’t want to lose another one.”

Dorothy sighed, shaking her head as she felt her cheeks warm up. Barricade had explained some cybertronian terms earlier in the month, and Dorothy knew that carrier was their version of “mother” in their culture. Barricade has also told her that in cybertronian standards, he was just becoming a young adult, which technically meant she was older than him. Dorothy placed a hand to his face and pressed her forehead against the cold metal. Barricade had brought up his other hand and held her again his face, forming a sort of a hug.

“Barricade, let me finish still.” Dorothy spoke up, letting Barricade place her down on the ground first. “It doesn’t matter whether I died or not because you know, that in the back of your processor, that it’s just a dream. And even if I died in real life, you need to know that I do it for a reason. As a police officer, or at least just in my mind, my job is to protect others to the best of my abilities so that others don’t suffer. That’s why I fixed your spark chamber without hesitation. I sacrifice myself so others can live to fight another day.”

Barricade seemed to understand all the she was saying. He nodded and moved forward a bit. He took his clawed digit and ran it over his hair, flipping it over on itself a couple of times. Dorothy reached up and patted the digit with a warm smile. “And I would be happy to be your new partner in crime if that made you feel better.”

“It would.” Barricade answered, smiling back. “It really would.” The police car then transformed back into his car form, popping open the driver’s side door for Dorothy so she could climb in. Dorothy stepped into the car and closed the door behind her. She pressed a button on the tablet screen inside the car and the song _Don’t Stop Me Now_ started playing. The two of them laughed until the both of them felt asleep to the sound of Queen in the background.

Barricade finally felt a little less broken that night.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade goes grocery shopping and Skywarp is being a goofball as always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

“I can’t believe you made me go grocery shopping with you. I thought it was your day off.”

Dorothy looked back at the tall tan man standing by the shopping cart. He was wearing an dark blue flannel and a pair of dark blue jeans that bagged up into his dark brown boots. The man had curly black hair and a bit of facial hair of the same color. He wore a pair of sunglasses on the opening of his shirt and had a bored look plastered on his face. “Wouldn’t you rather be at the hangar today, fixing cars or something you enjoy?”

Dorothy sighed as she walked over and placed the box of cereal she holding into the cart. “I’m sorry, ‘Cade, but I need to go shopping. For my brother’s sake, at least.”

“Urgh, Darren.” he groaned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Can the guy take care of himself?”

“I really don’t have a clue at this point, Barricade.” Dorothy answered, looking back at the shelf that was lined with different brands and types of oatmeal. “He’s IQ is lacking. I never knew way Mom and Dad let him live on his own in the first place.”

“But he’s older than you. The slagger should-OW!” Barricade yelped as Dorothy interrupted his statement by hitting him in the arm with the box of oatmeal she just picked out. “What the frag, Haven?”

“One, we don’t cure out my brother as much of a complete jerk he is.” Dorothy scolded him, placing the box in the car and leaning against the handle bar. “And two, you don’t call me Haven unless it’s a formal occasion. Just because my friends at work do, doesn’t mean you do. You’re my friend, Barricade, not my employee.”

Dorothy watched as the grown man huffed and moved off the cart so she could push it. Dorothy smiled at him and moved the cart down the aisle. Barricade apparently had the ability to make a hologram of himself, unknown to Dorothy, and decided that he wanted to use it more often since he hadn’t so in the past few months. Dorothy was amazed in the fact that Barricade could do most things that humans did in this form, which meant he could eat and sleep and among other things. Dorothy insisted that he’d stay in his “holo-avatar” form until she made him dinner. He agreed, being that he wanted to try human food to see what it was like.

“But why are we shopping for all of this extra food? It seems wasteful.” Barricade commented, walking with the cart and looking down at the short woman beside him.

“You said you wanted to eat human food.” Dorothy explained, stopping to pick up a box of whole wheat pasta off the shelf. “I’m making you good human food. And Darren also needs stuff for the week, so he doesn’t starve himself to death when I’m at work.”

Barricade froze at the human’s chose of wording. The phrase, “starve himself to death”, didn’t get well with him. It was another one of Starscream’s methods. Either he accepted the energon force-fed to him, or went without. His tanks had been running on basically fumes ever since that whole debacle and the human’s car fuel of gasoline didn’t have any nutritional value to cybertronians. With his holo-avatar activated, he could see if his converter still worked and he could change the organic food into energon. He just needed enough to fill his tanks and would be set for a week. Still, the term made him uncomfortable.

Dorothy had walked half down the aisle before she noticed that Barricade wasn’t with her anymore. She looked back to see him standing in the middle of the empty aisle and staring at her with an uneasy look. “‘Cade, you ok?”

Barricade seemed to snap out of whatever stupor he was in and jog up to her spot. He looked at her and ran a hand through his hair as he tried to calm himself. “Sorry, but please don’t say the term ‘starve’ around me. It brings up...not so happy memories.”

Dorothy understood what he meant and patted his back. “Gotcha.” she replied simply and the two of them continued throughout the supermarket, picking out different food items for the week and chatting about random things as well.

The two of them finally reached the snacks aisle, where Dorothy was scanning the rows of cookies that she liked. Barricade chuckled a bit, unsure to why humans had so many food choices when they all came from the same place. He guessed it was the same with energon and different energon grades, but at least it was the same food item. Dorothy had told him that they did tasted different because of ingredients, but he doubted he would like anything.

“Hey there, good-looking.” a female sounded from next him that it almost made him jump. He looked to his left to see another woman, but something seemed familiar about her that it was almost haunting. She was wearing a pair of sunglasses in her long brown hair and she had makeup applies over her face, defining most of her features. Barricade swore he knew this human, but couldn’t place it. “Haven’t seen you around before?”

“That would be correct.” he stated, almost sounding like Soundwave when he talked. “I’m...um...new in town.”

“Really?” she asked, giving off what seemed to be an innocent smile, but something was off-placed. “You seemed a little lonely waiting her by yourself.”

“Um…” Barricade scanned down the aisle to see that Dorothy was still picking out things from the shelves and not paying any attention to what was going on. He looked back down at the woman and noticed a few things about the woman’s appearance. The woman’s whole attire was very formal and expensive-looking, like she was trying to impress everyone she meet. Also, her chest was surprisingly...bigger than Dorothy’s. He knew that humans had different sized chest areas, but this woman’s seemed to be vastly different than the police officer’s. He didn’t realize until it was too late that he was staring too long in that general direction.

“You see something you like, handsome?” she asked, flirtatiously. The woman seemed to move closer to him and push him back up against the cart.

Barricade looked back at her face, seeing a devilish grin on her face, something of greed and other desires that he did not want to experience. Barricade didn’t know why this human female was flirting with him, but he didn’t want anything to do with it. He wanted to tell her off, but she didn’t seem like she wanted to leave. Barricade quickly became confused and tried to move away from the woman by walking away from the cart and backing off. “What? I wasn’t doing-”

“Shhhhh.” she said suddenly, pressing a finger to Barricade’s lip by reaching up and leaning against him. “I know exactly what you were doing.”

“No, you don’t.” he countered, moving away again and further towards Dorothy, seeing as she would be safer than this woman. “I was just waiting for a friend. I don’t know what you’re business is with me, but I don’t want any.”

Dorothy finally heard Barricade talking to someone and quirked an eyebrow. Barricade was talking to someone? That didn’t seem right at all. Who the heck was he talking to so strongly? Dorothy groaned as she silently hoped that he didn’t get into a fight with someone. She turned with her arms full of boxes of cookies and froze with wide eyes when she saw Mayrin Walker making advances on Barricade.

Barricade looked towards Dorothy again as he was pressed up against the shelf by the woman and saw she finally noticed. “Help me! I don’t know what to do!” he mouthed at her, pleading for her to get this woman to stop harassing him. He didn’t feel safe anymore and felt his chest closing up again. The woman was talking to him, but he wasn’t hearing anything she was saying. Barricade felt like he was in that stupid cave again with Starscream.

“Hiya, Mayrin! Small world, huh?” Dorothy suddenly called out, stopping the woman from dragging her hand further up Barricade’s arm. She snapped her head towards Dorothy and Barricade watched as her face changed from greed to disgust in a moment. He finally recognized the woman as the leader of the F1 team and instantly felt some anger build up, remembering how she called him ugly in his alt mode.

“Dorothy.” she grounded out, moving away from Barricade and brushing herself off like she was dirty from what she was doing. “Pleasant surprise. I was just telling his man where the crackers were. Oh look! Here there are.” The woman reached behind Barricade, literally pressing herself up again his body and pulled a package of crackers out to hand to him.

Barricade placed the crackers back on the shelf and warily moved over next to Dorothy, where he felt momentously more safe. He grabbed onto Dorothy’s arm and stepped behind the smaller woman for protection. “No thanks. I’ve lost my appetite. Anyways, Ms. Haven here was going to cook me dinner tonight, so I don’t think I’ll be needing them.”

Mayrin seemed to be taken back a bit, but smirked at Dorothy. She popped out her hips and placed her hands on them. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend, Dorothy. And such a good looking one, too.”

“What?” Dorothy said, confused on the woman’s question. She looked up at Barricade and then looked back at Mayrin with the same expression. She sighed with the look of someone experience stupidity and groaned a bit. “Oh. Cade’s not my boyfriend. He’s a relative from out of state. He just moved here so he could attend college. He decided to come have dinner with my brother and I tonight.”

Barricade looked at Dorothy weirdly. He wasn’t her relative or going to college here. Why the heck was she lying to her? Yes, she couldn’t tell him that Barricade was a alien from another planet because that would blow his cover, but he doubted the dull woman would believe it. Dorothy slapped him in the guts and her flinched as she gave him a glare. He looked back at Mayrin and nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I’m a distant cousin.”

The brown-haired woman looked at them for a second and then shrugged it off. Barricade just looked at her with shock that Mayrin bought the story. He guessed Dorothy was right about the woman not being the sharpest tool in the shed. The F1 leader flipped her hair at them before moving on past them, but not before giving Barricade a wink and an air kiss. Mayrin walked off and swayed her hips a bit as she did. Yep, definitely like Starscream.

“Stupid glitch needs to watch her boundaries.” Dorothy spat out as she walked down the aisle back towards her cart. Barricade smirked at the small woman and walked with her. Dorothy was pissed that Ms. Queen of the Highway was trying to flirt with Barricade like that. She was basically physically harassing the poor guy and he was so confused. “You alright, Barricade?”

Barricade looked down to see she had an expression of concern. “Yes, I’m fine. That woman seemed just like you described her. She’s also remarked able similar to Starscream. I thought I was going to have troubled breathing. Her scent was killing me!”

Dorothy laughed as she placed the cookies in the cart. “Yeah. Mayrin puts on too much perfume for anyone to handle. You think you’re going to choke on it and die.”

Barricade sighed, feeling much better than before. He stood next to Dorothy as they made their way into a different aisle, luckily in the opposite direction of the flirtatious woman. “I think we can agree that I am going to stay in my alt mode unless I need food or it’s a life or death situation.”

Dorothy laughed at that, and nodded her head. “That’s fine with me. But you have to let me cook for you. Only condition.”

“Deal.” Barricade agreed, smirking as well. “I’ve heard great reviews from the guys in the hangar about your baking skills. I also might need to disinfect myself tonight from her touching all over my body.”

“I might need to do that as well, Barricade. Her snobbiness if probably contagious.” Dorothy replied, sarcastically. “And they’re just saying that to be nice. But I do make a mean key lime pie.”

Barricade laughed along with Dorothy as they made their way to the checkout. Barricade had never felt better with anyone else than Dorothy, which was probably a good thing. Yes, he missed his other friends and most of all Cybertron. He shook his head and decided he could survive on his hunk of rock with this police officer taking care of him.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

“Starscream! Guess who I found!”

Starscream cringed at the sound of his trinemate screaming his name. He and Thundercracker turned around to see the black jet warp into the base and run towards them at full speed. Starscream had moved out of the way in time that Skywarp didn’t run into him, but TC had not be as lucky. Skywarp went barrelling into the navy blue Seeker and sent them both crashing to the floor.

“Warp, get off me!” TC cried, pushing his trinemate off and getting up.

The black Seeker got up as well, but was still seemingly bouncing off the walls. “I saw something today and I don’t think Screamer’s going to be happy.”

Starscream snapped his helm towards the younger mech and glared at him. “And what exactly did you find?”

“Well, you know that scout that you didn’t like?” Skywarp started to explain. “I went back to check that scrapyard I left him in and he was gone!”

Starscream groaned and waved a servo in dismissal. “Good. The human’s probably scrapped him, or the Autobots found him. He’s out of my plating, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Thundercracker looked at the black Seeker in confusion. “Skywarp, what do you mean by he’s gone? Did the humans take him?”

Skywarp giggled a bit and shook his helm. “Nope. He’s still alive and hiding from the government. I got a picture of him driving around on the highway.”

“WHAT?!” Starscream shrieked at them, causing a few surrounding Decepticons to look in their direction. Starscream seemed to notice and growled to himself. He grabbed the two Seekers by their wings and dragged his trinemates over into a secluded area of the base. “What do you mean he’s still alive? He had no energon in his tanks and his injuries were all fatal. You must of have mistaken him for a random police car!”

“Nope, it was Barricade.” Skywarp said, showing a datapad with the picture on it in his trine leader’s face. “There was a spark signature and everything. He looks brand new, like he was never beaten at all.”

Starscream ripped the pad out of Skywarp’s grip and scanned over the picture. He glared at it and growled again. It was Barricade. But something was definitely off. The mech’s paint coat was different and his siren glass was a different shade. The question of if the Autobot medic Ratchet really fixed him, but it was unlikely on how much the Autobot scout and their gunner despised the youngling. It also then brought up who else could have fixed him. The only other medic was Hook, and he was here.

Then, Starscream noticed something about Barricade’s paint coat. He glared at Skywarp for a second, but then smiled. “Skywarp, dear, where exactly did you drop off Barricade again?”

“In California, just like you said to.” the black Seeker replied, beaming at the silver jet with a bunch of pride.

“You idiot, you dropped him off in Arizona!” Starscream chided loudly at the mech and hit him over the helm with the datapad. “That’s a state over from California! Look at his paint coat! He’s gotten himself made a police car in Phoenix!”

“But I was close, right?” Skywarp asked, rubbing the back on his helm. “I dropped him off in a junkyard that was surrounded by desert.”

“Warp, just stop.” Thundercracker warned his trinemate. “He’s already mad. Don’t aggravate him anymore.”

“But-” Skywarp was about to say something, but TC covered his mouth with a servo and the two of them looked back to Starscream, who was fuming.

Starscream looked at the picture and growled aggressively. He tried so hard to take over the Decepticons and persuade them that he was a good leader. He even acted out when a rouge was amongst them. The damned scout was going to ruin everything! And he had gotten away and had been repaired. Starscream was quickly regretting the option of disposing of him. He should have made the youngling into a pet, or a slave to show and example. “We need to find him before he ruins everything I’ve tried so hard to secure. And make sure you bring him back alive. I want to make something useful out of the mech.”

“But how are we going to get past the police without alerting the Autobots?” Skywarp asked. “One of the humans made friends with him.”

Starscream perked up at that statement. He laughed at the statement and looked over at the black seeker. “Sided with the humans? He’s really stooped that low. But do enlighten me, Skywarp, who was Barricade made ‘friends’ with?”

“A human female.” Skywarp started to explain. “She can be seen riding with Barricade most often. I can’t find out where her housing unit it, but I do know that she fixes race cars for the police station’s F1 team. She could have fixed him, but it’s unlikely she could have had the knowledge to fix him. I bet she’s friends with the Autobots.”

Starscream nodded and hummed in agreement. He looked at the picture of Barricade and grinned wickedly. He sighed and dropped the datapad, brushing his claws together and chuckling to himself. He had a human to catch.

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy gets a visit from the government.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Dorothy looked up from her book when she heard a knock at her front door. It was five in the afternoon and she had just gotten home from work. She was reading _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_ and she really didn't want to stop. The knocking came again and Dorothy groaned as she decided she would have to get up at some point. She took her Slytherin bookmark and placed it in the book so she could come back to it later. She placed the novel down on the chair and walked over to the front door. She swore if Darren locked himself out again...

The small woman opened the door to find two army rangers standing there. One of them was dark-skinned and was wearing blade shades, while the other wasn't and had blonde spikey hair. They both were in army attire and looked like they both just came out of a training exercise by how much they were sweating. She mused to herself that this was Arizona and Arizona was designed by God to give people heat strokes if they didn't live her year round.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" Dorothy asked, leaning around the door frame as she continued to try and identify the men.

"Yeah." the man with the spiky hair answered, stepping forward. "We're looking for someone in the neighborhood. A 'Dorothy Haven'?"

Dorothy quirked an eyebrow at them and suspected the worst to come. What the heck did the military want from her? Did they find out about Barricade? Her hand gripped into a fist at her side as she continued to stare at them for a longer than needed. Bumblebee must of ratted him out. "Nope." she answered, nonchalantly. "Haven't seen her. Must of gotten the wrong block."

The two men look at each other, confused for a moment, and then look back at the woman to see that her was walking back into the house already. Of course, the man with the spiky hair that it was a good idea to try and stop her by grabbing her shoulder. The African American soldier froze and sighed, as he knew what was about to happen.

In five seconds, the man was pressed on the ground in an arm lock and with a Glock 22 against his head. He didn't know how he got there, but he now feared for his life. Dorothy growled a bit, digging her fingers into his wrist and pulling more on his arm enough to dislocate it. She wasn't allowing these guys to take away Barricade after she just got him to be comfortable going around town without feeling like everyone was out to kill him. At least her boot camp training didn't become lost over time.

"Whoa! Dorothy, can we not kill my best friend? We were joking!" Dorothy looked up to see the ranger had taken off his sunglasses and looked panicked. Dorothy froze for a second, trying to figure out who she was taking to until she figured it out it was just Epps and Lennox. She removed the gun from the ranger's head and released him from the arm lock by backing away. He placed the gun back in her holster and looked sheepishly at the two as Epps helped up his friend.

"I feel stupid now." Dorothy admitted. "I'm so sorry. The sunglasses though didn't really help."

"Yeah, but you know, government." Epps replied with a shrug, pocketing the sunglasses and helping Lennox up. The ranger rolled his arm a couple of times and cracked his neck, wincing as it made a loud noise. Dorothy smirked, happily to see that she could still use her training as self defense and for work as well. That arm lock was a good way to disarm people and put her in the advangate. At least, that's what her drilling sergeant said.

Lennox looked back at the small woman and looked over at Epps in confusion. "When you said we were going to see your friend, I thought you meant your friend from high school. Not a sparring buddy that can beat my ass."

"But I am his friend from high school." Dorothy reassured the men standing before her. "I just had to talk a summer of military boot camp in my senior year before joining the police academy here in Phoenix. It helps when you have to stop a robber from shooting a civilian."

"Told you my friend was cool." Epps bragged, nudging Lennox in the arm. "And because we're also here because the government wanted us to check out some stuff."

Dorothy looked of into space as her mind when racing out all the ways that this could end badly. So the Autobot did snitch on Barricade. Dorothy smirked though, trying to play it off. She couldn't let them know, not now, not ever. "You just came here to see my new car."

"No." Epps said sarcastically. "But yeah, we did. We have a bet going over your car."

Lennox groaned and looked at his friend. "Stop. Epps. We're not talking about the bet."

Dorothy sighed and opened the door a bit more to let them in. She just needed to play this off until they left and she would fine. Barricade would be fine and he won't have the Autobots on his tailpipe. The two boys walked in the house and respectively took their boots off, pushing them next to the front door. Dorothy grabbed her "car keys" and placed them in her pocket as they walked to the garage. "So what about a bet?"

"So Lennox and I have made a bet over if you really fixed your new car or not." Epps explained, earning a chuckle from Dorothy. She knew the truth and the answer was yes. They continued walking to the garage. Lennox groaned and appeared to have stopped listening."I say that you did and Lennox doesn't think you're the genius you are and thinks that you bought it new."

Dorothy stopped at the garage door and turned around the face the boys. They like equally excited and calm at the same time. The number one priority was protecting Barricade, so she had to make some rules up, which were the same for her brother, so no one could set him off and make him do anything un-car-like. The two boys looked at her and waited patiently, probably excited to see the car as Epps had texted her about five days ago. At least it wouldn't be a picture this time.

"So, this is my car, so my rules." Epps groaned at that, but Lennox nodded as he understood that. He playfully punched Epps in the arm to make him stop and the ranger winced and slapped his friend's arm as retaliation. "No touching the car, or getting in the car without my permission. Took a lot of effort to clean the paint coat and I'm not getting it dirty again. Also, if you want to look that the engine, I'm the only one allow to touch the hood. The hood has some problems that I'm still working out, so don't touch it. Also, keep negative comments to yourself."

Epps laughed, but nodded in agreement. Lennox looked a little confused on why the woman was being so touchy about her car. Optimus did say that she could have been holding Barricade here, but he didn't really see that happening. Yeah, the girl got him on the ground like it was nothing, but she was a police officer and trained to do that. Also, Lennox didn't think that this woman would be holding a Decepticon here when she was so nice. But, he wasn't going to judge until after he saw the car.

Dorothy could tell that Lennox was suspicious of her, but brushed it off as if she didn't notice. She opened the garage door to find Darren sitting on top of Barricade's hood, eating a bag of chip while watching TV. Epps gasped and started laughing as Lennox looked confused at the fact that the other male was sitting on top of the car that was supposed to be a Decepticon. Dorothy, on the other hand, was fuming as she saw this.

"Darren! What the heck do you think you're doing on my car?!" she exploded on him, making his jump and fall off the car, landing on the ground with a thud. Darren looked up in confused panic as his sister appeared in his vision and made a run for it. Dorothy was watching him do this and caught him by the back of his shirt before he could sprint away. Dorothy pulled him away from the police car and let go of him when he was by the house door. "What have I told you about the car?!"

"Umm...that it's a police car?" he said sarcastically. "Look, I don't know what you're probably is with you and your car. It's not like it's going to eat me or something."

I wish he did! Dorothy made a strangling motion in the air a few inches away from her brother's neck and groaned as she suppressed the thought. She looked back at the car and saw that Barricade was perfectly fine, except for the few chips that were on his hood. She still didn't want her brother sitting on him because Barricade could still him Darren if he wanted to. "Just stay off my car, ok? No touching, and no sitting on or in it."

"Well, it's my house and it's my garage." Darren protested. "If you don't want me to sit on your car, then don't park it in the garage."

The woman was very visibly mad at this point and finally broke when she pushed Darren forcefully toward the house door. Dorothy was shorter than her brother, but still was able to push him most of the way threw the door and back into the hallway that lead to the living room. Darren was going to say something back as her, but she slammed the door in his face and blocked out the sound of his voice. Epps stifled a laugh while Lennox looked weirdly at her.

"Brother still not pushing his weight?" Epps asked, giving Dorothy a knowing look. "I don't know why your parents let him leave alone on the other side of the country."

Dorothy's scary demeanor broke and she chuckled to herself. "I'm guessing that why they asked me to live with him. Not because it saved money, but because Darren is lacking in survival skills." Dorothy sighed, moving over to Barricade and giving him a gentle tap on the hood to make sure he was awake and that he was aware of what was going on. She felt Barricade move slightly under her hand, which told her he was awake. The woman moved over to the driver's side, opened the door and "started" up the car.

Barricade let out a stalling sound and followed it with a loud purr of his engine. Dorothy patted his dash again and looked over at the ranger's faces, as they were equally impressed and excited to see the car. She got in quickly and hover he foot over the accelerator, giving Barricade the sign to revve a bit. He obliged, wanting to keep his cover, but not liking the fact that he had to show off his engine's power and efficiency.

Epps' grin grew grew as he jumped a bit in overexcitement and tapped Lennox on the arm a bunch of times. "See? I told you it was a nice car. It sounds like a race car. A beautiful ass race car! So, he owes me my fifty bucks now, right?"

Lennox looked at him with a confused look and huffed, pulling out his wallet and taking a fifty out as he held it out. The bet was still on if she actually rebuilt the car or not, which was really the reason they were here. Optimus had looked over the pictures again and saw Dorothy's car shared a resemblance to the Decepticon, but wasn't sure that she owned the car in the picture. Also Ratchet had explained something else that Optimus saw in the photo. In the picture, coolant was dripping off the front of the car.

Ratchet explained that since cybertronians don't really have water in their systems, that the coolant is their form of tears or water systems. Optimus stated that if Barricade was indeed distressed in the photo, then something was definitely going on between Dorothy and him. He suspected the Dorothy might have worked with Sector Seven or another government group of the kind.

"No. The bet's on if Dorothy actually rebuilt the car or not." Lennox stated, looking to her for reassurance. Dorothy chuckled and closed the car door, moving to the hood and popping it open. She seemed to been checking something with the fuel lines and stood there for a minute, thinking about it.

"Yeah, I rebuilt the car. Took me three weeks, but I turned it from something out of the junkyard into a running vehicle." Dorothy stated, leaning into the hood and grabbing a pair of pliers from the workbench next to her. "It also just happens to get rocks and pebbles stuck in wiring and lines when driving down the road so many times."

Lennox rubbed his eyes a bit when he saw the car twitch and shake everytime Dorothy pulled out a rock or any other debris that got stuck in there. Lennox was even more surprised that she decided to do this while the car was still on. Epps noticed this too and walked up to the car to lock into the hood, seeing the seemingly stall a bit when he walked up. Dorothy didn't seem to be paying attention, but Lennox had moved around to the back of the car to see if Bee was right about the symbol being there.

Sadly, it wasn't. The Decepticon insignia had disappeared from the back of the police car, like it was never there. Dorothy never showed the back of the car in her pictures, but if Bee saw it last week, then it was probably still there under the paint coat. Lennox looked up from the back of the car and saw Dorothy staring at him for a few seconds before going back to removing the rubble. After a few minutes, Dorothy closed the hood and gave it a gently tap.

"Welp, I guess I am get fifty bucks today." Epps announced, holding his hand out so Lennox could place the fifty he was holding in his hand. Lennox sighed, but did as the man expected. Epps grinned at the money and stuffed it in his pocket. He took another look at the car and sighed, wishing that he could have a car like that even if it probably was a Decepticon. "Anyways, where did you find the car-"

_::Officer Haven, do you copy?::_

Dorothy froze and ran over to the driver's side door and reaching in through the open window to grab the radio. "Yes, I copy. What's wrong?"

_::We have a chase in progress to the warehouse complex in Old Phoenix. We need you to intercept.::_

Dorothy groaned. She wasn't even on her shift anymore, but they were asking her to come in. She looked back at the two rangers and sighed. At least this gave her an excuse to get Barricade out of here before they started asking too many questions. She already knew that Lennox tried to look for the Decepticon insignia on the back of the police car and he was suspicious of them. "I'll meet you all there."

_::Roger that.::_

Thee radio ended and Dorothy hopped in the driver's seat, being that her uniform was still on from when she got home from work. She opened the garage door and backed out into the street. In the rear view mirror, she could see a GMC Topkick sitting on the curb and knew that it was probably the gunner Barricade talked about. Lennox and Epps came running out, probably wondering what the heck just happened. "Wait, Dorothy, we still want to know-"

"I found it in a junkyard and Mars paid for it. It was my birthday present and I worked on it for three weeks. It became my car after I finished it and registered it into the system. Now I have to go." Dorothy shouted to them from the open passenger window and sped off in Barricade and off to Old Phoenix. The two of them were left behind and sighed as they seemed to not be able to pin Dorothy for harboring a Decepticon. There was no evidence that it wasn't and Epps had known her since high school, so she wasn't that kind of person. Dorothy sighed as she looked at the dash of Barricade and patted it. "You ok?"

Barricade sighed shakily. "With the fact that Ironhide was sitting outside the house and those two were probably sent by Prime, yeah, I'm great. Also, thank you for cleaning my hood. It was getting really bad under there."

"You're welcome." Dorothy replied. "Now, let's go see who's ass I got to kick."

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy and Barricade end up getting faked out by a jet sitting in a warehouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Starscream smiled to himself when the human replied to his call.

The silver jet sat quietly in one of the warehouse, waiting for her and Barricade to arrive, knowing that the two of them would show up. The female human seemed to be very serious about her job as an officer, which meant she would be bring her police car along, which happened to be the ex-Decepticon. Starscream would occasional peer out from behind closed door to watch for their arrival, making sure that the two of them were actually on time. He hated when people were late.

The Seeker sat in the warehouse for a good ten minutes until he heard sirens. He peeked out again to see Barricade barrelling down the road and skidding to a stop at the entrance of the lot. He smiled wickedly and moved backaways to transform back into his alt mode and wait. He was going to be able to kill two bird with one stone, as humans would say.

_::Hey Screamer!!::_

Starscream jumped as Skywarp's voice broke through the comm link. He growled and turned away from the door. "What could be so important right now?!" he asked in a harsh whisper.

 _::What exactly are we going to do with Barricade and the human after we capture them?::_ Skywarp questioned in a excited tone. Starscream only paid attention when his trinemate said "we".

"What do you mean 'we', Skywarp.?" Starscream questioned the Seeker on the other end. "I'm the one out here doing all the work!"

 _::You could have asked us to help you, Starscream.::_ Thundercracker's voice broke through on the comms.

"You are not apart of this conversation, TC!" Starscream backlashed, hissing at his other trinemate.

 _::You still didn't answer my question.::_ Skywarp budded in. Starscream groaned in frustation as his two trinemates hogged over the comm.

"The human will probably be killed, and I have something special planned for Barricade." Starscream informed his partners, grinning in thought of future events.

 _::But I want to keep the human!::_ Skywarp whined, making Starscream cringed at the tone. And everyone thought his voice was awful. _::She seems so pretty and fragile. I want to keep her! Please please please please plea-::_

"Alright! Alright!" Starscream finally broke and obliged to his trinemate's excessive pleading. "You can have the human female. But the both of you need to leave me alone so I can actually catch them! Now, go! Shoo!"

Both of the Seekers signed off and Starscream sighed with relief. He cared about them, he truly did, but they could be so annoying sometimes that it made him walk to murder them both. He sighed and turned back around to see the human approaching and smirked. He transformed into his alt mode and sat there as the human walked up. She seemed completely clueless to what was happening that it was too perfect. Hopefully, Barricade and the human will not be a problem anymore by the end of the night.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Dorothy walked into the last warehouse she didn't check and revealed a silver jet, just sitting there. She stared at it for a second before walking in more. She shined her flashlight as it as she looked around for any sign of the speeder that was calling in, or the person who called in the speeder in general. She and Barricade got here thirty minutes ago and haven't seen a signal person in the lot. She was starting to get a little too uncomfortable with the fact that no one else was here.

The short woman walked up to the silver jet and looked back towards the door to make sure no one was following her. Then she stared at the jet for another good minute before walking around the warehouse more in search of something to tell her that was someone else here. Dorothy turned her back on the F-22 fighter jet andshined her light on the rest of the warehouse. The light illuminated crates, boxes, small tables and other pieces of wood that were probably still here from when the lot was open to be used.

"Hey, 'Cade?" Dorothy asked into the radio on her shoulder. "Can you do a background scan on who called in that report."

 _::Sure, just give me a sec.::_ Barricade answered, making a few seconds of silence before talking again. _::So, what do you think the Autobots wanted? And how in the name of Primus do you know Epps and Lennox?::_

"Epps was a friend from high school and Lennox was a friend of Epps went he went into the army." the female officer replied, looking around again to see nothing but a bunch of wood. "And I guess Ironhide was Lennox's ride? Epps had talked of Will getting a new truck and that's the closest thing i could have thought of."

_::Yeah, ok, sure.:: the police car sassed back. ::OK, I have the check. And...that's weird.::_

"What's weird?" Dorothy asked back, looking down at a piece of metal on the floor that was out of place. It was scorched and melted on the edges, like someone blew it up and placed it inside a furnace afterwards.

 _::Well, it shows that no authorized police calls made that call.::_ Barricade explained with a questioning tone. _::And no one from base either. No voice recognition on the call either, so it was synthesized.::_

"So we got pranked?" the woman asked, flipping over the panel. She looked at it for a second before dropping it and moving away. The metal panel had a huge Decepticon symbol torched into it. Dorothy stared with wide eyes at the panel before turning around look at the jet that sat there.

 _::Dorothy? What happened? What was that noise?::_ Barricade asked, sounding increasingly worried.

"'Cade, please tell me that there isn't a Decepticon that's a silver jet." Dorothy said, slowly moving back towards the door, but not moving her eyes off of the aircraft. The jet had moved, facing her now and the engines could now be heard. The woman watched at the jet moved when she did and made her very uneasy.

 _::Run.::_ Barricade deadpanned. _::Fragging run!::_

Dorothy was about to sprint like the world depended on it when a giant metal claw swooped her up from behind and held her above the ground. She resisted the urge to scream as she swiveled around to see the mech standing there with a smirk on his face.

"Well, well, well. Look what happened to fall right into my servos! The exact human I was looking for!"

Starscream.

"Put me down, you monster!" Dorothy yelled, trying to rip herself free from the Decepticon's hold.

"A monster?" Starscream asked, as if he was completely oblivious to what he had done to Barricade. "I'm assuming you know what I have done and I was only giving the mech was he truly deserved for not following my commands."

"By torturing him for an entire month without a break?!" she argued back, utterly outraged by the fact the Seeker was denying it all. She reached up and tugged on her uniform shirt to get it to rip or slip from the clawed servo that held her up. "No one deserves that!"

Starscream smirked, bring the woman closer to his face. "Even me?" he asked in a sickly innocent voice.

"No, you can go rot in hell." Dorothy spat out, swinging a bit as she still struggled to get away.

She growled as the mech started to laugh hysterically at the woman for possibly even trying to offend him. Then, a moment of realization hit her and she stopped swinging. Dorothy smirked as she reached down to grab her hand gun out of its holster. He cocked it and clicked off the safety lock as she brought up the gun and aimed it at the Seeker's optics. "And I guess I'll see you there."

"What-" There was blasting sound, a scream of pain and the sound of a pair of feet hitting the ground hard before they started running.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Barricade was debating whether or not he should go in there. It was nighttime and no one else was around, but he didn't want to risk it if the Autobots were here in Phoenix. They might have tracked Starscream and the police car didn't want to get caught up in that brawl, especially if it meant having Ironhide's guns in his face. But then there was Dorothy.

Barricade heard the woman give her description of the plane and then there was a bunch of radio silence. He began to worry that nightmare might actually come true. The ex-Decepticon growled at himself and decided to go in there. The police transformed, transforming his servo into a blaster and started on his way in. He looked around and couldn't see exactly where Dorothy had run off to.

Then, he heard a gunshot along with a scream of pain and started frantically looking for the woman he drove her with. He started searching around the back end of the property when he finally heard footsteps at a fast past. He looked over towards the sound to see Dorothy sprinting toward him, limping slightly, and waving at him the signal to go. He stared for a moment before completely ignoring her signal by jogging towards her and kneeling down.

"Dorothy?!" Barricade asked, slightly panicked. "What happened?! Why are you limping?!"

"I'm...fine...we need...to...go...before...Starscream recovers." Dorothy gasped out in between her breaths. Barricade nodded and allowed her to climb into his servo. She climbed on and Barricade took off walking away from the warehouse.

"You light glitch! You're going to pay for that!" the voice of Starscream shattered through the air and Barricade flinched, not moving an inch. He hadn't heard that voice in over a month and a half and memories the police car had locked away started creeping back. He looked down at Dorothy and remembered that spark terror, that fragging spark terror, panicking about what he was going to do. Dorothy looked up at him with a confused expression and was yelling at him to move, but she didn't have a voice. Barricade had zoned out of the woman as memories started flooding his processor and he couldn't think straight.

He was so zoned out that he didn't even hear the heat-seeking missile coming up behind him, even though Dorothy was screaming and pounding on his chassis plating to move out of the way. The missile impacted with his back and sent him and Dorothy flying forward. Barricade finally snap out of his daze when the pain from the missle shot through his systems and he hit the ground in front of him. Crates and boxes were flying and went everywhere as the missile's impact destroyed one side of one of the warehouses.

The police car finally looked up painfully to see Dorothy laying on her back in front of him and unconscious. The police car started to fret over the human, but he couldn't move towards her. Why wasn't she moving? Why wasn't she responding to him? What happened to her? Is that blood?!

"Well isn't that peachy?!" Barricade glanced behind him to see Starscream coming up behind him with one of his optics shot out. The ex-Decepticon smirked as he realized Dorothy must of shot it out and that's how she got away. "The exact mech I was wanting to see today. Looks like you have recovered greatly thanks to that human's help."

Barricade became more panicked as he saw how close Starscream was getting to him and started moving towards Dorothy to try and protect her. There was no way in the Pits that the mech was going to let his worst nightmare come true. He was crawled towards her until he was an arm's length away, but something grabbed the back of his helm and flipped him over. Barricade yelped and groaned as he looked up to see Starscream dragging him away from where Dorothy was.

The police car was slammed up against a wall by his neck and pain rippled through his back from where the missile impacted his backsturts. The silver Seeker stood over him and grinned like this was the happiest moment in his life. "You've been very hard to find, you know. Luckily, Skywarp spotted you from the highway with your little human friend."

Barricade growled at the Seeker, trying to pry the flier's clawed servo of his neck cables as they began to cut into them. "Don't...you dare!" he spatted, baring his teeth at the mech.

"What?" Starscream asked, almost surprised. "You actually care for the little thing? Why? Because she fixed you and kept you safe? The first second she gets, she'll probably rat you off to the Autobots!"

"That's not true!" Barricade yelled back, seething with anger. "She wouldn't do that!"

"How do you know?" Starscream countering, squeezing his servo tighter around the police car's neck cables and making him choke slightly. "Humans lie and manipulate to get what they want. I'm sure you are aware of this. The human government is still hunting for Decepticons and in their eyes, you are still one."

Barricade clawed at the servo even harder as he tried to get away. All of the air in his vents were suddenly getting cut off and not allowing his engine to function. He couldn't breathe properly and tried to bring up his legs to kick the damned Seeker, but couldn't. The missile had broken on of his lower struts, which prevented him from moving his lower half. "She...would...defend...me."

"Defend you?!" That made the Seeker laugh. "Just her?! What is she going to do?! Just because she saved you miserably tailpipe and protected you from the government and me this far doesn't mean that we are going to listen."

"Then...you don't...know...her." Barricade hissed out. "She...did...shoot out...your optic,...didn't she?"

Starscream growled and pushed his clawed digits further into Barricade's neck cables. He leaned in, right next to his audio receptor, and laughed darkly. "You pathetic piece of scrap is going to rot away in a cell for the rest of your life as mechs will use you as a slave. Your life is going to be miserable and thanks to a wonderful suggestion by Skywarp, I am going to kept the human as a pet. She will die of disease or starvation right before your optics and you won't be able to do a single thing about it!"

Suddenly, a blaster shot ripped through the air and knocked Starscream completely off of the police, making him drop to the floor. Barricade gasped for a breath before looking to the side to see a giant, black mech standing there with his ion cannons fully charged and ready. The mech raced past him after Starscream and left Barricade with a yellow and black mech rounding the corner.

The younger mech came up to him and stared for a while before speaking. _::Barricade?::_ he asked, surprised.

Barricade recognized the broken voice as Bumblebee and groaned as his vision started to blurry on him. He didn't notice that there was energon slowly starting to pool around him. He looked towards where Dorothy was still laying on the ground and shifted a bit. He pointed towards her so Bee could see her as well. "P-Please." he said hoarsely as he felt himself go limp.

 _::What? The woman?::_ Bee asked, seeing the small woman laying on the ground with small bits of blood caking over the top of her head.

"Y-Yes." Barricade nodded as his vision blurred more and sounds began to distort. "S-Save h--her, pl-please."

Then everything went black for the mech and he was out.

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy wakes up and puts Lennox in another headlock, and Barricade has another panic attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Dorothy woke up with blinding lights in her eyes and winced as sudden pain filled her body. If she died and went to heaven, apparently heaven sucked!

The woman quickly closed her eyes against and kept them closed, not wanting them to be blinded anymore. The police officer then tried to remember what happened before this and a lot of things come to mind. The number one thing was that Starscream had tried to kill her and Barricade before this and she got knocked out when the woman hit the pavement. Dorothy subconsciously reached up and winced back when she touched the piece of gauze taped to her forehead. The woman sighed and began to wonder where she was, since she hadn't opened her eyes for a lot of time.

The sound of the door opening almost scared the crap out of her, but she remind still just incase this wasn't a hospital and she was somewhere else. All the voices around her sounded slightly muffled because of all the ringing, so she couldn't recognized any of the voices. The first priority in her mind was that she needed to get up and find Barricade before he got himself hurt again. But with all the people around, that was technically not an option. Until one of them decided to touch her and then she could move.

One of the voices got closer as Dorothy felt a hand wrap around her wrist, signaling someone was trying to either wake her up or handcuff her. So, she decided to move finally. Dorothy quickly opened her eyes to see that the blinding lights were gone, thank God for that, and she quickly got the man had touched her into an arm lock and a headlock on the bed that she once laid in.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Dorothy!" Dorothy flickered her attention to the man calling out her name and finding that her vision finally cleared, she could see Epps standing there in full army uniform. "Come down! You're alright! Stop choking Will!"

Dorothy looked down to see the ranger in her headlock and instant let go and moving back. Lennox gasped for a breath and staggered back away from the small woman. He looked in between her and his friend and sighed. "How? How!? She has a concussion! How the heck is she standing and getting me into a headlock?!"

"That explains the slight ringing in my ears and the blurry vision." Dorothy muttered to herself as she turned around to look for her clothes, since she was wearing a hospital gown. He looked around for a while until she found her tattered uniform in the garbage because of how shredded it was. She cringed and closed the garbage can again, not wanting to look at that. She turned around to see Epps and Will talking to each other and walked back over with a slight limp in her right leg. "Can I have a run-through of my injuries?"

"Bruised ankle, but you seem to be walking somewhat fine." Epps started to list off. "Concussion that seems to have little effect on you, few cuts and bruises, and you've been out for a day and a half."

"Great." she exclaimed sarcastically. "And I'm also in need of a change of clothes. You wouldn't mind grabbing one on the woman's uniforms, would ya Epps?"

"Um...sure." Epps agreed and walked out, closing the door behind him.

Lennox looked at the girl was trying to explain how the heck she recovered so fast without feeling all that pain. She didn't even seem to be groaning in the amount of pain she should be feeling at that time, but the pain never seemed to affect her. She walked around the cot and sat on the bed, waiting for Epps to come back, seemingly lost in thought.

"How'd you two meet?" Lennox asked randomly.

"Who? Epps, or Barricade?" Dorothy answered back with a slightly irritated tone. "I think you should know by now how I know Epps and I found Barricade in a junkyard, completely crushed and dented."

Lennox's eyes widened unexpectedly, taking in what the woman had said. The con was injured that badly? That brought so many questions about what had been going on in the past months. It was even more surprising to hear from Ironhide that Barricade was being choked by Starscream up against a wall. Was the police car really even a Decepticon anymore? "And you fixed him? Rob told me you were good with cars."

"I learned as I went along with Barricade's help." she answered, gripping the sheets on the bed as she bawled her fists a couple of times. The woman wasn't facing him anymore. "Why are you asking me all of this?"

"I'm just confused by you." Lennox admitted.

"Why? Because I look like I'm sitting her perfectly fine when I should be dying in pain?" Dorothy shot back, sounding very tired about this conversation. "It's not the first time I've gotten into an accident with a police car."

The door opened and Epps walked back in with the army uniform and a pair of army boots. Dorothy got up and took them from the man, motioning him to leave the room so she could chance. The two men left, and Dorothy was able to get a look off what Starscream's missile did to her. Epps was right about the bruising and the cuts, some parts of her body black and blue from the ground. She looked down at her ankle to see it in an ankle guard and sighed, imagining that walking was going to be hard.

The woman got changed quickly, minding the injuries and her ankle, and slipped on the army boots. They were sturdy, so she had nothing to worry about. Dorothy walked over to the garbage can to retrieve her belt, since it had her holster on it, and closed it again as she slipped it through the belt holes. She opened up a nearby cabin, because she wanted to snoop around, and found a few handguns. Dorothy picked up one around the size of her police gun and placed it in her holster. She then walked towards the door, opened it and stepped out.

"You good to go?" Lennox asked, gesturing to the hallway as Dorothy notice that Epps had left at some time.

Dorothy nodded and started walking with the Captain. The two started walking further out of the base and the woman seemed to be ignoring the ranger as she walked along side of him. The officer was scanning the hallways with her eyes, as if she was trying to find something hidden amongst the walls and corners. "You don't trust me, do you?" she asked, not making eye contact.

"You're living with Decepticon." Lennox plainly stated. "You're luckily no one arrested you."

"For what? Harboring a talking police car?" Dorothy asked, making her steps faster than the person she was walking with.

"You don't seem very afraid." Lennox mused. "You should be out and in a bed for another two days, but you're up and walking around like nothing ever happened to you. One might find it a bit strange."

"I told you, not the first time I've been in a major accident." Dorothy replied, making a thudding pattern with her footsteps as she walked. Her limp had gotten better, which was great, and all of the migraines she was having were disappearing with them. Whatever pain killers the base's medics had used seemed to be working for the time being. "I'll also be honest. I am afraid, but I'm not going to show it. Not now with a bunch of giant robots around that don't like me either."

"I never said I don't like you." Lennox replied. He was a little unease about her now, but that really didn't matter. "Just someone whose made friends with a Decepticon usually has some ulterior motive in mind."

Dorothy stopped walking and turned around to face the soldier. "You literally had no idea what happened, do you? No one explained to you why in the world I am sacrificing my job, my life, and my being in general for Barricade, and you just amuse that I'm doing this because I want to join the Decepticons?, or I work for another one of your Section Sevens'."

Dorothy was upset and very disappointed in a lot of people right now, and she was talking out all of her frustration that she had for Starscream on the ranger. Lennox didn't answer for a while, afraid to say something wrong and infuriate her more. The man finally understood why Epps said that she was the scariest girl in boot camp. When she got pissed, she got pissed. "I don't know. Optimus thought that you had done something to Barricade. The pictures you sent Epps and I of Barricade as you 'new' car had coolant dripping down the front of the front of his bumper. He and Ratchet had explained that it's the cybertronian way of crying."

Dorothy blanked for a moment before she groaned and sighed into her hands. "He was having an episode during the pictures and I never realized it until after I sent them. I didn't do anything to Barricade, I would never, but I think we need to call a meeting with everyone else before someone decides to shoot the mech in the face."

"Then we should start going then." Lennox answered as he looked up to see Epps running at a full sprint down the hallway they were in. "Epps? What happened?"

"Ironhide pulled his guns out on the mech the moment he woke up and now he's backed himself into a corner with loaded weapons." Epps scrambled to say as he slowed down in front of them to a halt. "Ratchet doesn't know why he reacted so badly, but something's definitely wrong. Everyone's in the main hangar and last I saw, Ironhide was getting impatient with the 'con."

Dorothy froze as fear started to seep its way into her mind and heart. Barricade was going to have another episode and she needed to be there. Dorothy was the only one able to calm Barricade down because everyone else in the room was his enemy. And most of all, if Ironhide did anything to make him fear for his life, the woman was going to have to start all over again fixing the mech.

Dorothy pushed Epps out of the way as she broke into a full sprint towards the main hangar and silently hoped she wasn't too late to help Barricade.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

_"How long until he wakes up, Ratch?"_

_"I don't know. His damage was extensive and I don't know when he'll come out of it."_

_::He's been acting were weird thought. If that woman he was staying with was using him, then why did he ask me to save her?::_

_"I don't know, Bee! All of you get out before I start throwing wrenches!"_

Barricade groaned as the pain in his back slightly worsen when he shifted. He could feel something holding him to the berth under him, but he didn't really care. He was in so much pain that he didn't want to move. The voices around him sounded familiar, especially the broken one, but he hadn't opened his optics yet to see where he was. He felt someone poke at him with a scanner and he freaked as he opened his red optics.

He was surrounded by a bunch of Autobots while strapped to a medical berth. Oh joyous him!

"Hey there, sleepy helm!" Ironhide mocked slightly as he noticed the Decepticon had woken up. "You enjoy your recharge?"

Barricade growled at him and started to struggle against the bonds that restrained him to the table. How much he wanted to punch the weapons specialist in the face right now was unbelievable. "I see you missed me." he seethed with sarcasm.

"Watch it, 'con!" Ironhide growled back, taking a threatening step forward.

Ratchet sighed and instantly pushed him away as he finished his scans. "Stop it! Both of you!" the medic scolded, going back to read his scans. He hummed with satisfaction as he went over them. "Beside the current damage, your systems seem to be fully functional and everything is mostly running. Your spark is showing history in the last few months of fatal damage thought, which concerns me."

 _::See?::_ Bee spoke up from a ways away. _::That human must have done something!::_

"Wait what?" Barricade asked in confusion about the statement the scout made. Was he talking about Dorothy? He didn't know if he show be seething in anger about that, or laughing his aft off on how misinformed the mech was. "Are you talking about Dorothy?"

Everyone in the room froze as Barricade mentioned the human's name, including Optimus, who was standing across the room watching. Ratchet turned to Barricade with a puzzled look as he scanned the mech with his optics. "Why are you confused? Isn't she the one who was locking you up in her garage?"

"Are you serious?" the police car deadpanned, looking at the Autobots like they were all complete idiots. Did they seriously think that Dorothy had hurt him? "The reason I'm not offline right now is because of that woman! The reason I was in the garage was because she was fixing my systems for three weeks. I also liked being in the garage because it kept me out of sight from prying optics. I would be dead in a junkyard if she didn't find me first."

Ironhide was the only one to start laughing after he was done explaining. Bee moved away, not wanting to be associated with the harrassment. "And ya want us to believe tha'? She's a human! Humans don't know anythin' about cybertronian technology unless they're part of a government organization like Sector Seven."

"She's just a police officer and a mechanic!" Barricade fired back, pulling more against his bonds to sit up more. "All she does is save people's lives and fix race cars all day. She's not an evil mastermind or something. I don't know where you all are getting this from. I thought you Autobots were all about humans."

 _::That doesn't explain why she sent pictures of you crying to Epps and Lennox.::_ Bee started explaining. _::It also doesn't explain why you've been acting so non-Decepticon lately. You disappeared for an entire month with all the rest of the 'cons and when you finally pop back up, you're working with the police and arresting me for speeding!::_

Barricade froze when Bee started talking about Dorothy. Did he still have coolant stains on his bumper from his first episode that he had before he and Dorothy took those pictures? He thought Dorothy had wiped those all off. His processor started racing as he began to ignored everything around him. He looked at them quickly like all of them were going to beat him senseless and cowered a bit on the medical berth.

His processor started breaking again, sending him into an episode again. "Ratchet, can I get up now?" he asked softly, trying not to attract the attention of the others in the room. "Please, I need to get up. I'm don't feel safe strapped down to the berth."

Ratchet stared for a moment before walking over. Something was definitely wrong with the Decepticon, he could tell, and decided that the others were giving him a hard time. He hadn't done anything in the past few months and the others were being rude for no reason. He unlocked the bonds and allowed Barricade to finally sit up. The only other one to notice was Optimus, who hasn't said a word on the problem to observe. The police car sat up and rubbed his wrist joints, alertly watching the other Autobots. "Thank you." he replied.

"You have been very out of character." Ratchet analyzed. "You want to tell me why? Does it have to do something with the human and the fatal damage?"

Barricade was about to answer when he realized he didn't know where Dorothy was. He started to panic and frantically look around for her. The last he saw of her was when she was unconscious and bleeding out of her head, so that didn't bring any comfort. He slowly stood up and mindlessly wandered to go find her, utterly worried about his friend. He needed to know if Dorothy was okay.

Unfortunately, Ironhide noticed the Decepticon get up and had his ion cannon in the mech's face faster than he could shot one. "And where do you think you're goin'? I don't remember telling you that you could live."

Barricade's red optics widen at the cannon came to view in his face and backed away. He began to feel trapped in the hangar. All the Autobots were staring at him like he was a piece of scrap and a disgusting mech. He couldn't focus on one mech in the room as he backed all the way into the nearest corner in the room. He slid down against the wall, not being able to hold his balance and started gasping for air again. His vents seemed to all close up on him and not allow him to breathe.

_"You pathetic piece of scrap are going to rot away in a cell for the rest of your life as mechs will use you as a slave."_

Barricade started hearing Starscream's voice in his audios and snapped his helm up to look around to the room for the Seeker. But all that was there were Autobots menacingly glaring at him. He then heard the cackling of the jet and covered his audios with his servos, burying his helm in his knees to try and block out everything else. But the laughter didn't stop and Barricade couldn't handle it anymore. Coolant started falling and sobbs started to escape the mech's mouth as he tried to breathe again.

Time seemed to slow as Barricade was stuck in his episode and nothing but insult after insult entered his processor from all the sessions from Starscream. The mech couldn't think straight as his mind clouded more. That was until he felt a small tap on his leg and he recognized the pattern that was being tapped. He felt his vents open a bit, but not a lot, as he peeked up from his knees.

There was Dorothy in an army uniform, a few injuries and a soft smile on her face. She was okay and alive and it made Barricade so happy to see that. "Hey, 'Cade. You want to calm down a bit? You're okay. No one is going to touch you, I promise."

Barricade uncoiled himself a bit and reached down and touch Dorothy, just to make sure she was actually there. The noises had stopped, leaving them in the silence of the hangar as Barricade started to relax. A clawed digit came down and tousled Dorothy's hair a couple of times, finding comfort in it. The woman just laughed cheerfully and smiled back at him. Barricade's shell broke and his vents opened again, allowing him to breathe normally.

"Dorothy?" Barricade asked, his voice hoarse and crackling from the crying he had done.

"Yeah, Barricade?" she replied back as she pressed a hand up against his leg to let him know she was listening.

"Can I hold you for a moment?" he asked like a small child would to his mother.

"Of course you can." she replied and hopped into his servo when it came down for her.

Barricade's knees spread out into a criss-cross position and his other arm dropped to the floor. The police car held the woman up to his face and nuzzled her a little. The mech found comfort in this, feeling safe and okay again. Dorothy giggled a bit and rubbed the side of his face with her hand. The two of then sat like that for the next few minutes until Barricade fully relaxed back to his normal self. He felt somewhat lighter and the woman seemed to be the same.

Dorothy, on the other hand, was livid. What the heck had happened in here? She turned around with the most innocent face and scanned the room. She saw Bumblebee, and who she presumed were Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide. She stared at the black mech for a minute before clearing her throat.

"Now...you all want to tell me...WHO IN THE NAME OF PRIMUS HURT BARRICADE'S FEELINGS!?!"

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bee and Barricade have a fun moment with each other and Dorothy and Optimus make a bet on something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Bumblebee was sitting in the back corner of the hangar and waiting for everyone to set up for the meeting, his optics flickering over to Barricade every once and a while.

The scout was looking at the police car with a questioning look. He had never seen Barricade, even a Decepticon so scared before of an Autobot that it almost hurt him inside that he caused some of that fright. The ex-Decepticon was talking with his human friend, who he remembered was named Dorothy, and they seemed to be having a bonding moment. She was sitting on his raised servo while having a small conversation with him about something. At some point, Barricade put her back down on the floor and she walked off to go have a conversation with Epps.

The yellow and black Autobot watched as the human seemed to make Barricade more relaxed and more like his old self. The police car was leaning back against the wall of the hangar with his optics closed, probably resting. Bumblebee wondered what had happened that made the mech so scared and guessed that he and his friend would tell everyone during the meeting. But in the back of Bee’s processor, there was a tiny voice telling him to go up and talk to Barricade.

Since Barricade technically wasn’t a Decepticon anymore, maybe he could be more...what the heck was he thinking?! Barricade was his enemy! His rival and nothing more than that! The scout shook his helm of the thought and when back to mindlessly looking around the room. But sadly every time he would try and distract himself, his optics would land right back on Barricade. It was frustrating to the point where he actually got up and walked over.

Bee walked over to the mech and crossed his arms in front of his chassis, waiting for the mech to realize he was there. Two out of the four red optics of the ex-Decepticon opened and looked up at Bumblebee. “Hey Bumblebutt. You need something?”

_::My name’s not Bumblebutt! It’s Bumblebee!::_ the yellow mech argued and stamped his pede. _::I also...::_

Barricade looked up at the younger mech in confusion. He was attacking like a sparkling. He technically was a sparkling that this point. “Did you just come over here to make a confrontation out of this, or did you just get up from your spot in the corner because you were bored and you needed to talk to someone?”

_::No!::_ Bee argued again, puffing up his chest in defiance. He was only upset because the mech were right. The mech had seen right through him and he hated it. The scout’s stance finally slagged and he took a seat next to the mech, still crossing his arms across his chassis. He pulled his knees up to his chestplates and hugged them there. _::Maybe...::_

Barricade laughed a bit, shaking his head. He propped himself more up against the wall and stretched out his limbs. He looked over at the yellow Autobot and saw how embarrassed he was, which made Barricade laugh even more. But it wasn’t a mocking laugh, it was a friendly laugh. He shook his helm and sighed. “So what do you want to talk about, Bumblebutt?”

Bee groaned and glared at the mech. _::Why...why are you acting like this? So...friendly and non-Decepticon?::_

Barricade shifted in his spot, a bit uncomfortable with the question since it would bring up the topic of Starscream, but he sighed. Everyone was going to know in about an hour anyways, so what harm could it do? “Well, I mostly blame Dorothy. Her personality is very addictive and reminds me of how I used to be back when the war first started and I wasn’t a Decepticon yet.”

:: _You weren’t always a Decepticon? Shocking.::_ Bee asked sarcastically, earning a chuckle from Barricade.

“Yes, it’s true.” Barricade mused whimsically. “But I also changed back I didn’t like knowing that I was like Starscream in a way. A jerk and hurting people to no reason. Doing things without a cause...I don’t like that personally.”

Bee sat shocked at the statement. Who was this and where was Barricade? The mech smiled though, liking what Barricade had said because it felt true. He didn’t think anyone would want to be like Starscream, but it did bring up the question why. He knew that Barricade didn’t like talking about Starscream before, but he seemed to have relaxed enough to tell the younger bot a few things. But why was Bee so happy to talk with Barricade about this?

_::I know you don’t like talking about Starscream and all, but what did he do?::_ the scout asked, worryingly.

Barricade froze and few memories popped up. ‘A whole month of torture where he never gave me fuel and medical help.’ was what he wanted to say, but knew that Bee didn’t need to hear that right now. Believe or not, the mech wanted to make sure that the kid had a intact sanity at the end of this conversation. He shook his helm as he ridded himself of the bad memories and looked back at the mech’s curious face. The older mech sighed and finally decided to answer. “Nothing you need to worry about, kid.”

_::I’m not a kid either.::_ Bee muttered, his tone a little whiny. The two mech were silent for a while before Bee scooted closer to Barricade. The police car look at the mech with a bit confusion before he just let it side. He didn’t know what the youngling’s deal was, but he decided to ignored it for now. Bee finally look up from the floor and looked over at Barricade for moment before asking, _::Do you have any other friends besides Dorothy?::_

“Nope.” Barricade answered, placing his arms behind his helm as he leaned back against the wall. “She’s my only friend right now. Frenzy is somewhere on this dusty rock and Blackout is nowhere to be seen, probably dead. This little symbiote buddy, Scorponok is probably still hiding in the desert somewhere near Qatar, but I’m basically alone that this point.”

_::Well...you’re not a Decepticon right?::_ Bee continued to ask the police car questions.

“Yeah, what’s your point?” Barricade asked, starting to get irritated with the youngling. “Optimus trying to get me to join as an Autobot, or something? ‘Cause no thank you, I’m good with my police job.”

_::No! That’s not what I meant!::_ the yellow and black mech exclaimed, waving his servos in defense. Bee suddenly got really shy and nervous. He couldn’t do this! He wanted to ask the mech if he would be his friend, but that would be pathetic! The mech would just laugh at him and he would be even more embarrassed with himself. He shrunk away and thought about his question for a moment. _::Would...would you...like to be...friends? You don’t have to say yes, but I would like to know!::_

Barricade stared at the mech for a moment. Be his friend? Autobot wanted him to be his friend? After all the scrap he’s done? He tried to kill his other friend, his team almost just enslaved the planet two months ago and the Autobot who he was arch rivals with wanted to be his friend? This mech most of lost something more than just his legs in Mission City because this wasn’t the all-american boy scout that he knew.

“You’re serious?” Barricade finally asked after a long period of silence. “You want me to be your friend after almost killing you best friend and I arrested you?”

Bee wanted to protest, but couldn’t find an answer to Barricade’s question. He was right. The scout was still mad at him for almost killing Sam and did still hate him for the whole car chase thing, but if Bumblebee was one thing, it was persistent and determined. :: _Um...yeah, I do. If you can be friends with a human, then how hard could it be to be friends with an Autobot, right?::_ Bee commented, answering the mech’s question.

And that’s when Barricade just up and walked away. He put his servos up as a sign of surrender and walked in the direction he saw Dorothy leave. He didn’t want to deal with this, no way, no how. The kid was too Primus-forsaken adorable, and Barricade felt like he wanted to purge his tanks out because of it. He didn’t hate the youngling as much now, even if he still was annoying and was basically Prime’s boy scout, but the mech wasn’t a bad person when he thought about it. That’s what made him want to purge even more.

Bee just stared with hurt in his optics as the mech got up and walked away. He sighed in sadness and looked down at the floor and bundled his knees up to his chestplates again. He thought it would work, being friends with Barricade, but he guessed they were always meant to be enemies at this point. The mech slowly got up and started to walk back to his corner to go and sluck in it.

“HELMS UP!!” Someone yelled and Bee didn’t really look up at the call. He was too defeated to do so as he kept walking. Then out of nowhere, something tackled him to the ground as an explosive when off a few feet behind would he was walking. The yellow and black mech was disoriented for a moment and his audio receptors were ringing like crazy. He turned off of his shoulder to see a mech on top of him and it seemed like he was calling his name out.

It was Barricade. The black mech was shaking his shoulders as he was calling his name out. The scout felt the ringing fade after a while and his optics focused again. “...bee! Bum-lebee! Bumblebee! Are you okay?! Show me that I didn’t hit you too hard against the ground please!”

:: _Cade? What...What happened?::_ Bee questioned, not being able to see what had happened from where he was laying on the floor. _::What exploded?::_

“Oh thank Primus, you’re okay!” Barricade exclaimed, with a smile on his face. “I thought Ratchet and Optimus were going to kill me there. Anyways, one of Ironhide’s missions misfired and it almost hit you in the chassis. It would have hit your spark chamber! What the heck weren’t you paying attention?!”

Bee was stunned for a minute as he stared up at Barricade. The ex-Decepticon just saved his life, his actual life. He could of let the scout get hit, but he pushed him out of the way. Bee didn’t know what to do. _::Why?::_ he asked, his tone full of confusion.

“Why?” Barricade asked back, quirking a brow. “Umm...well...misfires can happen for multiple reasons. Cleaning a gun or cannon can set one off, or when you’re taking a shot, it can rebound.”

_::No! I mean why did you save me?!::_ Bee yelled, coolant in his optics. Why the heck was he crying? He growled and told himself to get a grip. But he couldn’t. He almost just died and he was so scared. He closed his optics to try and stop the coolant from seeping out of them, but trails started forming. _::I-I almost died! I could have d-died, ‘Cade! But, you...I don’t understand!::_

Barricade sighed, and pulled the mech up into a hug. He wasn’t doing this because he wanted to, per say, but he knew that this is what Dorothy would do if he was having a breakdown like this. He placed his arms under Bee’s and secured them around his waist, pulling him in tighter. The mech cried with tears of fear into his shoulder plating and Barricade didn’t move until the youngling was done. After about a minute, Bee pushed himself away and looked at Barricade with a scared and hopeful look.

“I’m a police officer, if you haven’t forgotten.” Barricade responded to the look. “My job is to protect others to the best of my abilities so that others don’t suffer. I didn’t want you to die when you haven’t done anything wrong. You’re a nice cybertronian, Bee, and I don’t think anyone here would what to see you died. I just...did my job and got you out of the way. I guess I’m lucky that I didn’t get hit either.”

Bumblebee felt his spark flutter. What the heck just happened? Barricade just Bee felt his faceplates start to heat up and he finally realized that Barricade was straddling his legs because of the way he tackled the scout. The yellow and black scout felt so weird and pulled his legs out from under Barricade’s aft. He tucked himself in against his chassis and buried his helm into his knees, a shade of burning red spreading over his face. _::Thank you.::_ he muttered.

“You’re welcome, I guess.” Barricade answered back and stood up. He looked down at the mech and sighed, offering out a servo. Bee brought his helm up to look at the servos and grabbed onto it as Barricade pulled him up. Once Bumblebee was on his pedes again, he turned away to hid his blush again. He rubbed in arm with uncomfortability and had the thought to start walking away and pretend the whole thing never happened. That was until Barricade said, “You still wanna be friends?”

Bee jerked a bit and spun around, looking at Barricade with his wide blue optics. _::You mean it? Like, you really mean it?!::_

Barricade rubbed the back of his helm with shyness and nodded. “Yeah, like you said. If I can be friends with a human, how hard could it be to be friends with an-OOF!”

Before Barricade could finish his sentence, the yellow and black Autobot hugged him tightly and jumped up and down a bit. _::Yes! We’re going to have so much fun! We can go racing, and drifting, and play video games with Sam. Maybe we can even have fake chases where we can take turns being the cop car!::_

Barricade pushed Bee away from him and a small blush appeared on his face, but it wasn’t recognizable. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, there, bud! Let’s slow down, ok. Now, the only one who gets to be the cop car around here in me. I chase, you run. That’s how it works.” the police car said smugly and smirked that the Camarao.

Bee laughed and made his stance taller, trying to match height with Barricade. _::We’ll see about that, slow poke!::_ the mech shot back and instantly transformed, driving off out of the hangar, laughing.

Barricade glared at the mech with disbelief. “Slow poke?! Apparently, you don’t remember who caught your aft in Phoenix last week! Let me remind you!” the police called after, transforming and speeding off afterwards. Sirens could be heard from down the runway as Barricade made his pursuit on the youngling. “You cheater! You got a head start! Come back here, you little fragger!”

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Dorothy watched as the two mechs headed off down the runway and smiled. She was glad to see Barricade moving to other people his species to have fun with. And she was also glad to see that the police car actually learned something from her about being a police officer. She leaned up against the railing of the catwalk and watched as Optimus walked over.

“Ms. Haven.” the leader acknowledged, looking in the direction he heard the sirens going off.

“Dorothy is fine, Optimus.” the woman mentioned, smiling back. “And I think we just witnessed a friendship blooming out of a rivalry. Five bucks says Barricade asked Bee out on a date first.”

Optimus froze, looking at the woman as she smirked. “What?”

“Oh men.” Dorothy mused to herself, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “Can’t even see romance even if it was under their senses. Bee clearly likes Barricade more than a friend and Barricade showed that he cared, but pushing Bee out of the way. The both of them were flustered by it and friends was all they could admit to at the time.”

Optimus stared at the woman in shock, wondering how she could know all that just by looking. “And you say Barricade is going to ask Bumblebee out on the date?”

“Yeah, I betting five bucks on it.” Dorothy explained, pushing a hand on her hip. “Unless you want to bet something.”

Optimus quirked a brow and sighed deeply. “I will bet that Bumblebee asks first. Twenty bucks.”

Dorothy smiled and chuckled. “And they say Primes don’t party.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade asks Dorothy for dating advice and Ironhide gives Bumblebee and harsh criticism.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

“Dorothy, I have a question about...Bumblebee.”

Dorothy perked up from her book to look at the holoform version of Barricade standing in the hallway. They were back home, finally, and Barricade had been allowed to go back to the N.E.S.T. base whenever he pleased since he wasn't a threat anymore. And some days, she would find her garage complete vacant of her police car because someone slept over at the base. Barricade had apologized many times after that incident and made sure to tell her before he went to visit his new best friend/secret crush. And when Dorothy looked up at Barricade, she already knew what he was going to ask.

“Yes, you can go sleep over at base.” Dorothy answered. “I don't have work tomorrow, so you're lucky.”

“That’s not what I was going to ask about. But thanks.” Barricade stated back and walked over to the couch. He took a seat and looked at Dorothy with desperate eyes and a nervous look. “I was going to ask you something more...personal.”

Dorothy made a surprised face and placed her bookmark in the section she was reading as she closed her book. He placed it on the coffee table and looked across at Barricade. The dark-haired man was sitting in the very tense position and was fidgeting with his hands. He was clearly nervous about something. The woman sat back in her chair and folded her arms, quirking an eyebrow. “And you want to talk about it with me? Wow, I feel so honored.”

“Haha, very funny.” Barricade answered back. “I was going to actually ask you for some advice on something. Have you ever had any mates in your life?”

“Mates?” Dorothy asked, questioning the mech. “Are you talking about lovers? As in having a boyfriend/girlfriend thing? Umm...yeah. I’ve had mates before. Why do you ask?”

Barricade stared at her silently for a moment before looking down at his hands and growling a bit. “I just...I don’t know! I get this weird feeling whenever I’m around him and I physically hurts! In my spark chamber and tanks, it hurts like crazy and I don’t know why! He’s so bubbly and happy all the time and I think it’s poisoning me! I just...argh!”

Dorothy froze for a second before bursting out into laughter. Barricade looked up at her with an expression of confusion and hurt. Why the heck was she laughing at him?! This was a serious matter! Barricade growled and turned away from the woman, crossing his arms and growling at her the entire time she was laughing. The woman had to grab her stomach to support herself from falling off her chair.

“Wait! So you’re telling me...that you actually have a crush on Bee?!” Dorothy exclaimed, having to take a breath in between since the laughter took a lot of it out of her. “Oh sweet Jesus, this is fragging prefect! My little boy is growing up!”

“Little boy?! I’m am not your child!” Barricade yelled back and Dorothy started laughing again. “This is serious, Dorothy! I don’t know how to deal with this! I’ve never experienced this before!”

Dorothy stopped laughing and look at the mech seriously. “Wait, you’ve never dated before?”

“No, just everyone else asks me out first.” Barricade admitted, crossing his arms over his chest. The holoform’s face suddenly flushed a bit, his cheeks growing red. “I usually end up falling in love over time, but this is different!  _ He’s _ different! He’s kind and thoughtful. He never mentions anything about being a Decepticon anymore and when he does, he apologizes immediately. And he has the cutest fragging aft I’ve ever since!”

Dorothy hummed in agreement as she picked up the notepad from the coffee table, writing everything down about Bumblebee that Barricade had mentioned. “Anything else you like about Bee?”

Barricade looked up from his lap and stared at the woman with the notepad in her hands. “What? No! We’re not playing this game! How did you fragging know it was Bee?!” he asked angrily as his face grew from blushing to his entire face being red.

“It was so easy. I know you wouldn't have save him from that cannon shot all those weeks ago if you didn’t care about him.” she argued, using her pen to point at the man and gesture. “Also, you blushed when you started talking about him, especially his aft.”

Barricade growled and covered his face with his hands, trying to hide the ever growing blush on his face. “I hate you.”

“Love ya, too, Cade.” Dorothy answered back, smiling. “Now, tell me the good stuff. Like his features, personality, anything really. I’m trying to help you.”

“Help me? Why?” Barricade asked as he peeked through his fingers.

“Because I’m your friend, and friends help each other.” Dorothy answered, smirking and getting herself in a more comfortable position. “Now, talk.”

“Okay.” Barricade finally agreed, removing his hands from his face and leaning back on the couch more. “I guess he’s just cute in general.”

“Oh come on! I need more than that!” Dorothy whined, tapping her pen against her pad. “Tell me about his face, his frame, his interests.”

“Well, Ratchet told me that the circle thing isn’t apart of his face.” Barricade started to explain. “It’s a vocoder, since his voice box was torn out. He can remove it if he wants, but he’s probably too scared to. That’s why he can speak English and doesn’t have to use the radio to speak anymore. I would like to see his actual face, though.”

Dorothy wrote something down quickly before looking up again for Barricade to continue. “Go on.”

“Umm...he likes racing.” Barricade stated. “I think everyone knows that. He’s very friendly, but could be serious if he wanted to. He gets overly excited about anything to do with missions. He’s shorter than me, which is great since it would be easy for me to pick him up, and his little antenne things on top of his helm are fragging adorable! Also he apparently likes racecar oil. Since we can still drink gasoline and other things besides energon, he’s talked about wanting to try racecar oil for a long time.”

Dorothy wrote some more things down before she clicked her pen off and read over her list. She smiled and tapped her pen against the page before looking up at Barricade. “Okay, I’ve got a plan.”

“Wait, what?” Barricade snapped back to the real world for a moment. “What are you doing?”

Dorothy groaned with frustration and gave the man a face. “You came to me for dating advice and I’m helping you. Now, I’ve got everything worked out from the things you told me about Bee. All you gotta do is ask him out, which should be easy.”

Barricade glared at the woman. “I thought we were over this! I can’t do that! I haven’t ever asked someone out before.”

“‘Cade, chill.” Dorothy reassured and moved over to the couch to be closer to Barricade. She was here to support him, since she still had that bet with Optimus. And you know she wasn’t about to lose that. “So, here’s the plan. Remember that charity race the guys and I were planning a few weeks back?”

“Yeah?” the dark-haired male said back. Barricade’s hologram flickered as he ran through his memories quickly to make sure they were on the right page. “What about it?”

“So, there’s an event at the end of the race that’s basically a free-for-all race for folks with sports cars and their own personal race cars and such.” Dorothy started to explain to her friend. “I’m going to sign you and Bee up for the race and you two can have some fun. You two would watch the big races first, then be in the final one. I’m sure Bumblebee has a holo-avatar so Sam doesn’t have to third-wheel. Anyways, it’s this Saturday and tomorrow, you are going to ask Bee out to the race.”

“Okay...that doesn’t sound that bad.” Barricade admitted, shifting his position as he placed one leg over the other. “But what if he says no? That’s the one fear about this and I didn’t want to screw it up!”

“I’ll come with you and be your moral support, don’t worry.” Dorothy assured as she put a hand of Barricade’s shoulder. “I’m also going to grab a barrel of race car oil from the hangar and you can give it to him as a gift before you ask him. Kinda win him over before you even ask, you know? All you have to say is, ‘Bee, do you want to go to this race with me on Saturday?’ and that’s it.”

Barricade contemplated it for a moment before smiling at the woman. He felt so much better now that he had a plan to go off of. He leaned forward and hugged the human tightly. “Thanks, Dorothy.”

“No problem, Barricade.” Dorothy replied and watched as the mech got up to walk off. The woman waited until the ex-Decepticon was gone before he grabbed her phone and dialed Epp’s number. The phone rang until someone picked up. Dorothy had a large grin on her face. “Hey Epps, can you give a message to Optimus saying I raise my bet to 500? ...Thanks, you the best.”

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Bumblebee was sitting in the med bay as Ratchet was running some scans on him. Ironhide was there to, just to watch, but he was still giving the youngling a weary look from how happened a few weeks ago. The scout couldn’t remember how many times the weapons specialist told him he was sorry, but it was a lot. The one thing he was remembering though, was how Barricade saved him.

Bee smiled as his daydream continued, his processor replaying the event that happened. He remember how Barricade looked worried and concerned. He remembered how Barricade asked if they wanted to be friends. He even remembered everything he was feeling. Happy, scared, a little love sick, and completely embarrassed. Bee sighed as he continued to daydream, wondering what would happen if Barricade ever liked him back. It was unlikely that the ex-Decepticon would go that far, but the youngling could dream.

“Bee! Have ya been listenin’ to a single word I’ve been sayin’?!” Bee jumped a bit and looked over at Ironhide, who was apparently talking to him about something. 

_ ::Whuh?:: _ Bee finally replied, looking confused.  _ ::What I miss? Sorry, just thinking about...stuff.:: _

“I’m so sure.” Ratchet budded in, reading over Bee’s scans again and smiling. He could see the mech’s emotions off of the scan he took and mused at how emotional the mech had been in the last couple of weeks, especially after he became friends with Barricade. He and Optimus had already talked about this bet thing going on and how Barricade’s human friend can already see that Barricade liked Bee back. “Just try to not daydream as much.”

“That could getcha killed in a battlefield, you know.” Ironhide lectured, Bee groaning as he crossed his arms over his chassis.

_ ::Is everything about battles with you? I’m still not a full-grown mech yet, so let me live my fantasies.:: _ Bee argued with the older mech, moving further back on the medical berth so his legs wouldn’t hang off the side.

“Which are about what, may I ask?” Ratchet inquired, quirking a brow at the youngling.

Bee blushed at bit as he thought back to how he was thinking about Barricade’s frame would prefect and how his optics were beautiful. :: _ Umm...n-nothing! J-Just the usual! Race car oil.:: _

Ratchet smirked and went to look at his tools. “Well maybe you should ask Barricade for some. His human friend works in a hangar full of race cars. Maybe the mech could give you a taste of what he’s got~”

Bee completely flushed at the innuendo and covered his face with his servos as he groaned.  _ ::Ratchet! Stop it! He’s my friend! And that's disgusting!:: _ the young mech whined and shuddered a bit.

Ratchet chuckled as walked away to go get something from the other room. Ironhide looked at the two of them completely confused. The weapons specialist was on the other side of the hangar since that's where the shooting range was. He didn’t get to see Barricade save Bee's life or the fact that his bullet almost hit the scout until Optimus told him what had happened, but left out the part about Barricade. The old mech had no idea that the young scout had a thing for the ex-Decepticon that saved his life. So, Ironhide continued being confused about the situation.

Ratchet came back a few seconds later with the thing he went to go grab and the yellow and black scout had recovered by then. He swiveled around to face the medic and fidgeted a bit as he face still retained a small redness.  _ ::So, you guys never told me about any social rules or anything when he got here, like dating or friends and stuff. Are there rules?:: _ the mech asked weirdly.

Ratchet laughed a bit and shook his helm. “I don't think we really need to since you're the youngest of us all, but I think there are some. Let me think for a moment-”

“No ‘Cons.” Ironhide interrupted. “No dating ‘cons. I am still not okay with Barricade being here as an ally, so you can bet that that's the number one rule.”

Bee froze and laughed nervously, but it was unnoticeable.  _ ::’Hide, you do know Ratchet was kidding, right? I would never date a Decepticon, are you crazy?:: _

Ratchet sighed and rubbed the young mech’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Bumblebee, the mech is just messing with you. He knows that Barricade is just your friend. He just doesn't like it.”

Ironhide huffed and crossed his arms over his chassis. “You know I don't like it! I don't even see why you two are friends in the first place! The two of you are bitter rivals three weeks ago!”

Bumblebee pouted a bit and scowled at the older officer.  _ ::So what? Optimus says that freedom is a right to all sentient beings, so why not Barricade? He's not even a Decepticon anymore! You heard what happened to him! The mech was tortured for a whole mouth by Starscream and you don't even feel a little bad for him?:: _ the yellow and black bot argued.

“Still don't like it.” Ironhide huffed again, leaning back against the nearest wall. “I remember when the leaders of the Autobots used to have consequences for being too ‘friendly’ with a Decepticon. Used to think it was treason against the cause and they would exile ya.”

Bee froze in the moment and looked worryingly at the weapons specialist with a slight bit of fear in his bright blue optics.

_ ::...E-Exile?:: _ the mech asked, his voice stuttering a bit. 

“Ironhide, stop scaring him!” Ratchet yelled at the mech. “You know that no one would do that, and you’re just taking out your anger about Barricade out of Bee!” The lime green medic looked a little pissed at this point.

“What? It's true.” Ironhide continued, clearly not caring. “They used to think it was defection and sometimes they would in prison ya for the rest of your life. Sometimes even scrap them for spare parts!”

A wrench when flying across the room and hit the black mech in the helm. He groaned and looked over at the pissed medic, who was trying to calm down a shaking and frightening Bumblebee. The yellow mech thought about his daydreams and his happy desires and realized that he could never have Barricade in his life as more than a friend. The mech’s optics were wide and tearing a bit. Ratchet hushed the mech as he reached forward to hug him. “It's okay, Bee. No one is going to scrap you for being Barricade’s friend. I think it's great that you became friends with him, since he really did have any.”

Bumblebee suddenly felt sick and pushed himself away from the medic. He pushed away so much he almost fell off the medical berth. He scrambled off the berth and ran out of the med bay, crying a bit more and gripping his middle. The scout made his way to the washracks and hid himself in their amongst the stalls. He sat down in one and started to sob at the thoughts running through his processor. He felt sick, and wanted to purge up all of his recent drank energon. And that's what happened.

Bee felt the bile rise up from his tanks and let his vocoder slid away as he purged silently. He made no sound since his vocoder wasn't activated and he had not voice box. All the purged energon slowly slipped down the drain as the youngling started sobbing away. Coolant fell and he felt utterly sick at this point. He was just told that the Autobots would disown him if he dated Barricade. They would throw him out, or lock him away forever. Maybe even use him for spare parts. Bee purged again after that thought. 

The youngling leaned back against the back wall of the washracks as he watched his bile slip down the drain. He sobbed and cried silently as he continued to think about him and Barricade. He was so upset that the thought that they could ever be together.

He just wanted the police car to comfort him.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade asks Bee out on a date and something goes wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! Still gonna try to get one chapter out a day!

Barricade pulled up at the N.E.S.T. base with Bumblebee nowhere to be seen and got worried for a second.

The police car was ready, since he been practicing all night for this and he didn’t want to screw up. He had the barrel of race car oil in his subspace, the plac fresh in his processor because Dorothy was going over it on their way over to the base, and Barricade wasn’t about to chicken out on this. He let Dorothy get out of the driver’s seat before transforming and walking further into the main hangar to look for the yellow scout. He scanned the room and didn't see the Autobot anywhere, which worried him slightly.

“You think Bee’s out on a mission?” Barricade asked his human friend as she walked over to the catwalk.

Dorothy looked around the room and quirked an eyebrow in confusion. “I don’t know...hey, Optimus?”

The leader of the Autobots was currently looking at the main monitor since he was reading over some recent reports. The mech snapped back to reality for a moment and turned to see Dorothy and Barricade had arrived. “Yes, Dorothy?” he asked back, wanting to know what the woman’s question was.

“You have any idea where Bee is?” she asked, leaning against the railing of the catwalk.

“No, sadly I do not.” the Prime replied, his face turning concerned when he looked around the room. “I do not think he is with Sam, since the boy is away for vacation, so he should still be here. I will comm him that you are here.”

Barricade and Dorothy both nodded. The woman looked over at Barricade and saw that his digits were fidgeting again. The mech leaned back against the catwalk and continued to look around the room for things that he could focus on while he was waiting for Bee to show. No one else was in the main hangar, besides Optimus and Dorothy of course, but the police car started to get really nervous about the plan. It was simple, but Bee was young and very emotional, so one wrong word and it was be over.

Suddenly, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the hallway leading into more of the main hangar as Bumblebee appeared with dim optics. He was in the washracks all last night after he had his moment purging all the energon in his tanks. The scout had woken up that morning with an empty tank and still in the washracks. The Autobot was actually on his way to the storage room, but had to cross the main room to do so. The youngling look up from the floor and saw Barricade standing there with a big smile on his face.

 _::...'Cade?::_ Bee asked, slightly surprised. He wasn’t expecting Barricade to be here, since he only come to visit during the evening. He wasn’t here last night, and Bee was thankful for that since it meant that the police car did witness him sobbing and purging himself in the washracks. _::What are you doing here? Doesn’t Dorothy have work?::_

“Dorothy’s off today.” Barricade explained, making his way over to the shorter mech. “It’s Thursdays, if you haven’t forgotten, since that means we can hang out all day. Well, maybe not because you do look so good. Did something happen last night?”

The police car was right. Bee looked like he had just crawled out from the Pits and Unicron was calling him to go and die again. The mech’s structure was slagging, his backstruts not as straight and upright when he was normally standing. The scout usually bright blue optics were now dimmed and flickering a bit from the amount of fatigue and energon he was lacking in. Lucky, Bee had remembered to place his mask back onto his face, so Barricade didn’t see it.

 _::No...nothing happened.::_ Bee muttered, turning his helm away so he didn’t have to look Barricade in the optics when he said something.

“Okay…” Barricade answered, not really sure the mech was telling the truth, but let it slide for now. “Anyways, I wanted to give you something, since you’ve been nagging everyone about it for the past two weeks.”

Bee’s optics brighten a bit. Barricade got him a present? The young scout was placing all his attention on the other cybertronian as the police car opened his subspace to pull out a barrel of some sort. The black and white plated ex-con held the barrel out for the scout to take and Bumblebee look confused at it. He rotated the metal container and inspected it, as if he didn’t know what it was. His optics looked up curiously at Barricade, but he still grasped unto the barrel.

 _::What is it?::_ the yellow and black mech asked the ex-Decepticon with a bit of confusing.

“It’s oil.” Barricade explained and placed his servos behind his back so his digits would stop fidgeting from all the nervousness he was feeling. “Specifically race car oil. You were talking about how you tried it once and you wanted to again, and since Dorothy had some in the F1 hangar, I took one to give to you. I don’t think she would mind.”

Bee’s optics brightened even more and he smiled. He looked between the barrel of oil and Barricade, blushing a bit from the gesture the police car just made. The memory of how Ratchet said yesterday was this fresh in his processor and now began to wonder if the old medic could tell the future or something. He didn’t dwell on it since he was so happy that Barricade had gotten him a gift. The youngling ran forward and hugged the mech’s middle, causing Barricade to stumble a bit.

 _::Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I love it so much!!::_ Bee exclaimed, jumping up and down a bit as he hugged the cop car tighter. Barricade wheezed a bit from the hug, but chuckled anyway while patting the yellow and black mech on the back. He was so happy the oil worked so well, and that he didn’t slip up yet. Barricade looked back at Dorothy for a moment to see the woman giving him the thumbs up. The police car breathed in a bit and vented it all of his frustration. He tapped the young mech on the helm.

“Bee, you can stop hugging me now.” Barricade said a little awkwardly, making the yellow and black mech let go and step away with a shy and flustered expression on his face. There was a band of red spreading across his face and the mech didn’t seem to notice it so far.

 _::S-Sorry! I didn’t mean to...I just got excited.::_ the scout finally stammered out and rubbed his arms as Barricade just kinda stared at him.

The police car was trying not to blush so hard. Everything about Bumblebee right now was perfect. He was bubbly and happy. He was ecstatic about the race car oil, which Barricade had hoped for when giving the present to the bot he was going to ask out. Also, Bee gave really good hugs. They were warm and endearing all the time. Barricade didn’t like the fact that he and his friend had to seperate from the embrace, but knew that the race was going to be a time to maybe sneak a few in. “It’s okay, Bee. I actually ask you.”

Bee perked up to this and his antenne seemed to raise a bit in attentiveness to the words. _::What did you want to ask me?::_ It was almost too cute to how the youngling was so oblivious to what was happening.

“So this Saturday, Dorothy’s F1 team is putting on a charity race.” Barricade started to explain to the younger mech with a small grin on his face. “And they also hold another race for people who have their own sports cars and such. I know you like racing and other things like that, so I signed myself up for the race and was wondering if...if you would like to come out to the race with me on Saturday, if you’re not busy, of course.”

Barricade just asked Bee on a date. Barricade just asked Bee on a date! Bee optics flickered for a moment as his smile grew in size as he took in the thought. The mech he had a crush on just asked him out on a date to get racing with him! Bee just started off into space for a good while as a blush grew on his face to a semi-dark red. The mech wanted to jump for joy, but that would be too much. The youngling ran forward and hugged the Mustang again to the point that he might crush one of his plating.

_::Barricade...I-::_

_“I remember when the leaders of the Autobots used to have consequences for being too ‘friendly’ with a Decepticon. Used to think it was treason against the cause and they would exile ya.”_

_“They used to think it was defection and sometimes they would in prison ya for the rest of your life. Sometimes even scrap them for spare parts!”_

_“No dating ‘cons... **or I think you can agree that everyone would kick you out, even Optimus.”**_

Bee pushed Barricade away as the memories of what Ironhide had said yesterday ran through his processor. Exile, scraping, imprisonment, and maybe even torture were all consequences of dating a Decepticon. Ironhide still thought Barricade was a Decepticon and so does everyone else, maybe even Optimus. He felt sick again, but held in the urge to purge his tanks out. He had nothing in them, so it would look pathetic.

_**“And not even your precious Prime would come to save you.”** _

That voice wasn’t Ironhide. Bee looked up at Barricade and back away some more. The barrel of race car oil was still in his servos, but the mech decided to just put it in his subspace for later, probably. _::I-I can’t.::_ Bee said plainly, a small tremor forming in his voice.

“What?” Barricade asked with worry in his tone. Did he do something wrong? He couldn’t have! He did everything correctly! “What happened? Are you okay?”

 _::B-Barricade...I-I sorry, I-I just can’t…::_ Bee said again, his voice growing shakier and his frame starting to tremble.

“Bee, you don’t look so good.” Barricade said, even more worried. He took a step forward trying to reach out for the mech. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Bumblebee moved away more, but ended up tripping over himself and landing on the floor. _::I-I sorry! I-I’m fine and I d-do r-really want to g-go, but I-I just can’t!::_ Bee was now completely paranoid of his surroundings. He didn’t want to say that he couldn’t go. He wanted to go so badly, but he didn’t want to not be an Autobot. He didn’t want to get tortured for the rest of his life.

Barricade growled a bit in frustration. He wasn’t mad at Bee, but himself for messing this thing up. “And why not, huh?! Why can’t you just go to one little stupid race with me?! What’s so wrong with going somewhere with me?!”

_::BECAUSE I CAN’T BE DATING A DECEPTICON, THAT’S WHY!!::_

Bumblebee ran off after that, leaving Barricade, Dorothy, and Optimus in a shocked state. Dorothy and Optimus were very confused about what just happened, where Barricade was completely sparkbroken. Can’t date a Decepticon? The police car thought that Bee didn’t think of him as a Decepticon anymore, but he guessed he was wrong. He fell to his knees and placed him helm in his servos. What the heck did he do wrong to make Bumblebee hate him so much?

✢✢✢✢✢✢

_**“You’re weak and beyond repair, you pathetic little scout? What makes you think that any of the Autobots would every fully accept you after this?”** _

_**“You’re a disgrace! So what you protected the cube! You still weren't strong enough to protect yourself from me!”** _

_**“You've really given up hope, haven't you? The precious scout of Prime has given up. No one will ever accept you now, and you know it. No one will love you ever again.”** _

“Bee, you ok?”

The scout looked up from his arms to see the human friend of Barricade standing in front of him. Coolant was streaming down his face from his dim blue optics, and small hiccups and sobs escaped from his vocoder. The scout was back in the washracks, hiding amongst the stalls as he cried for the second time in two days. He turned his face away from the officer and continued to cry. _::G--Go a-away!::_

“Bumblebee, I know you don't want me to go away.” Dorothy retroted, crossing her arms over her chest. “Tell me what's wrong. I'm just here to help.”

 _::Yeah right!::_ the youngling shouted as more tears fell. _::You only here so you can go tell Barricade how much of a sparkling I am!::_

The woman shook her head and press a hand against the plating of the Autobots leg. “You’re not a sparkling, Bee. You are a very mature bot, when you want to be, but believe or not, he's just as upset as you are right now.”

Bumblebee felt as if time froze on him. Barricade was upset about him not going on a date with him? The scout huffed and glared at the woman, almost growling at her. _::You’re lying just to take pity on me! Barricade is strong and stoic, he doesn't cry like a little glitch like I do!::_

Dorothy groaned and glared back. “I'm not taken pity on you and I'm not lying! Barricade literally broke down crying after you left! He tried so hard to ask you out and you just told him ‘no’ and ran off!”

 _::He just doing that to make a fool out of me!::_ Bee started to argue back. The coolant falling from his optics were starting to blurr his vision. _::Decepticons and Autobots can't date each other! Optimus and the others would disown me and kick me out! I don't to be kicked out of my family!::_

“So what if you date a Decepticon? Barricade isn't one anymore, so it shouldn't matter!” Dorothy tried to reassure. “And no one is disowning you for liking Barricade! Especially Optimus, who cares so much about you! Who the heck told you that?!”

Bumblebee hesitated to answer. He didn’t want to rat out Ironhide, in case he found out and someone would happen because of it. The yellow and black Autobot curled up on himself more and muttered, _::...Ironhide.::_

“Of course.” Dorothy immediately said afterwards. “Don’t listen to ‘Hide. If you love Barricade and he asked you out on a date, go! Ironhide's not your creator, nor your leader. You do want you want with your relationships and don't let anyone tell you who to or not to date. It's you choice, not theirs.”

Bumblebee nodded before starting to feel sick again. He hadn't eaten anything yet and needed to before he crashed completely. He remembered the race car oil and took it out of his subspace. He popped it open and drank some black liquid inside. The oil was a lot grittier than regular oil because of the amount of stuff needed to clean out an engine's lines. But, the drink was sweet and was fulfilling to the mech, since he hasn't eaten all day.

 _::Was Barricade that scared to ask me out?::_ Bee asked, looking at his can instead of the woman.

“I gave him dating advice, Bee.” Dorothy responded. “Trust me, he was not okay. He came to me in his holo-avatar and started talking about you, so I decided to play matchmaker.”

Bumblebee nodded and finished his oil, which was delicious and made the young mech feel five times better. He looked down at Dorothy and smiled a bit. The woman was here to help him, and the scout decided that he had to go back.

When Bumblebee and Dorothy walked back into main hangar, Barricade was sitting in the middle of the room on his knees. Small amount of coolant slipped by the edges of his optics, but not as much as Bee. The young scout walked over and took a seat in front of him. _::I'm sorry I walked out on you, ‘Cade. I was being an idiot and I was afraid of things that weren't true.::_ the mech apologized.

“Really?” Barricade asked, his words full of hurt. “Well, good for you. At least one of us didn’t screw up today.”

 _::You didn't screw up, Barricade, I did.::_ Bumblebee admitted. _::I was afraid of what being an Autobot would be like if I was dating a Decepticon, but I realized I was wrong. I'm not dating a Decepticon. I'm dating you, and that would be the best thing in the world.::_

Barricade didn’t look impressed. He glared for a moment and huffed. “Prove it then. Prove to me that you want to go out with me.”

The scout didn’t know what to do for a while until the thought came. The youngling sighed shakily as he quickly removed his vocoder, pecked a kiss on the older cybertronian on the cheek, and slid his vocoder back over his face. _::I want to go to that race, Barricade, if you will have me.::_

Barricade was frozen a bit. Bumblebee just kissed him and he enjoyed it so much that he wanted more. He finally realized the mech had been crying from the coolant trails staining his face. The police car leaned forward and kissed both of the mech’s cheeks. He leaned back and smiled a bit. “Yeah, I'll have you on this date, Bumblebee.”

And the two mech hugged them in each other's arms. Unfortunately, all they heard was this,“Alright Optimus, hand over my $500 because I win the fragging bet!”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade and Bumblebee are being very flirty and Dorothy sees her ex again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

_::That was no fair!! Your stupid aft wouldn't let me pass you!!::_

“That’s the whole point of a race, Bumblebutt. Just because you’re younger than me doesn't mean I'll let you win things automatically.”

_::But you cheated!::_

“How did I cheat?”

_::...I don't know, but you did!::_

Dorothy chuckled as she watched the new lovebirds have their first fight. The woman was sitting on the catwalk, semi-watching semi-reading a book as Barricade and Bumblebee were arguing over their first date race. It was a tight finish, but Barricade managed to pull in front of the yellow Camaro the last lap and get first place. Multiple people had asked her who was driving her cruiser and the woman replied with “just a friend”.

After Bee had come back to told Barricade he wanted to go on the date, the two muscle cars came home with Dorothy and slept over in the garage together. They proclaimed themselves as official boyfriends to each other that night after saying their first “I love you”s, but not to any other Autobots, or Sam. Dorothy and Optimus were the only ones who knew, and the human was sworn to secrecy until Bumblebee was more comfortable. The scout was still a little scared of anyone, especially Ironhide finding out.

Dorothy sadly didn’t get to witness most of their date, since she was working pit crew the entire time as the mechanic and event organizer. She did go up to check on them every two hours or so, but only got to witness them hugging each other and giving small pecks on each others’ cheeks. Unfortunately, they never got to their first kiss yet, since civilians kept entering and leaving the parking lot so much.

The whole race for the muscle car and the police car, on the other hand, was great to watch. The two of them were still in the raised parking lot, so they could see the races. The two of them were completely alone, beside Dorothy coming up to check on them every once and a while, so they were able to be in their bipedal modes without anyone watching. Bee was sitting in Barricade’s lap, leaning back against the mech’s chassis as the police car gave him small pecks on his cheeks and helm. They too were upset they hadn’t had their first kiss yet.

“Bee, it's okay.” Barricade answered, trying to calm down the youngling. “Getting first isn't everything. You enjoy yourself, didn’t you?”

The scout looked at the police car and sighed in defeat. _::Yeah.::_ The youngling was still partly upset that Barricade hadn’t fully kissed him yet, but knew that they would soon enough.

Barricade chuckled and smiled at the smaller mech, creating a warm atmosphere between the two other them. “Then that’s all that matters.” he stated. “I love you, you know that right?”

Bee giggled a bit and playfully punched the mech’s arm.

Dorothy smiled and wolf whistled from the catwalk, causing the two mechs to jump and the woman to start laughing. Barricade growled at the woman as a small blush formed on his face and Bumblebee went fully flushed with embarrassment. Luckily, no other Autobots were in the room at the moment to witness that. “You lovebirds are too adorable sometimes.”

“Shut it! Don’t call us ‘lovebirds’.” Barricade growled, glaring at the woman fiercely. “And we’re definitely not adorable! Well...at least I’m not.”

 _::Hey! I’m not adorable either!::_ Bee complained, crossing his arms over his chassis as he huffed and puffed out his chestplates. It was true that the scout was the youngest and the youngest looking, but it didn’t mean that he was cute or adorable.

“Yes, you are.” Barricade chuckled lightly and turned back around to wrap his arms around the youngling’s waist from behind. “It’s one of the traits that makes me love you even more than I already do.”

The ex-Decepticon wanted that first kiss as well, but knew he had to wait until they were in the more private place to do so, for Bee’s sake. The police didn’t want to do it their first night together, since Bumblebee was still incredibly nervous about being the ex-con’s boyfriend. But after all the little teasing he was doing all day, he could tell the little Autobot was more comfortable with their relationship.

The Autobot scout smiled shyly at Barricade and leaned up against the ex-Decepticon, taking in all the affection he was giving. This felt nice, being that Barricade was his first official “boyfriend” ever. Bumblebee was born during the war, so he never got to meet anymore mechs or femmes his age. And he was so afraid that first night they slept together, since he was worried that Ironhide would burst into Dorothy’s garage any moment and take him away. All the teasing that Barricade had done made him want that kiss now.

Bee turned around in Barricade’s arms, pressing a servo against the mech’s chestplates. _::I’m guessing this means you want something from me?::_ the youngling asked in a playful tone.

“Maybe...if you’re willing to give in.” the police car teased, tightening his hug around Bee’s hip joints. He leaned down to his face was hovering over the smaller mech’s.

 _::Never! I will never succumb to your evil sorcery!::_ Bumblebee replied, playing along with the teasing that his boyfriend was giving out. Bee felt a blush raise in his face and he smiled warmly at the black and white cybertronian holding him. _::I am a strong mech, and I can withstand your tricks and desires!::_

“Oh really?” the police cruiser asked leaning forward and kiss the mech on the Autobot insignia on his forehelm. He moved his face to come a few inches away from Bee’s face, feeling all of the heat that steaming off of the Autobot scout and wanting to close the space between them. The youngling’s optics were already half open, hung with compassion and affection. The police car loved seeing the young mech so lustful. “We’ll see about that~”

“Dorothy?! What happened?! Why are you back so early from the race?!”

Fear grew between both mechs and they separated themselves from the warm moment they were sharing. Bee’s face still had a reddish tint to it, his blue optics shining brighter than normal as he imagined what that kiss would have been like. Barricade was a bit flustered still and a little pissed off by the person who just denied him his opportunity to kiss his boyfriend properly. Dorothy too was a little upset that she couldn’t witness the prolonged kiss, but guessed the base was too full of interruptions to do so.

Lennox walked into the room right after the new couple separated, keeping their secret from the ranger a little bit longer. “Dorothy! There you are! Barricade and Bee can’t be in here right now! We’re giving a tour to some of the new officers on base and Morshower wanted it to be as Transformer-free as possible!”

Dorothy placed down her book and gave Will a face. “Look, we just got back. Chill. It’s just two cybertronians. And this is Bumblebee and Barricade we’re talking about. The scout’s the most friendly mech you’ll ever met and Barricade will behave himself.”

The ranger captain groaned and sighed, walking further towards the catwalk stairs as Barricade and Bee moved to the nearest wall to sit down by and cuddle a bit. They were friends, so it would be fine to those who didn’t suspect anything, so they were safe for now. The smaller mech leaned himself up against Barricade’s shoulder, allowing the larger mech to pull an arm around him. Barricade took out a datapad from his subspace and started to read it as Bumblebee closed his optics and tried to get some rest.

Will looked up at Dorothy with a pleading look. He really didn’t need this right now. “That’s not the point! You can’t be here either because-”

“Captain Lennox, what is talking so long for this tour to proceed?”

Dorothy almost took out her gun from her holster and shot off a bullet when she heard that voice. Anger rose in her body and she seemed to tense at the sound of someone walking into the main room of the Autobot hangar. She didn’t want to even want to look in that direction as the officer came walking into the room. She was so pissed, why the heck was he here!?!

A tall man with raven black hair and piercing blue eyes walked into the room, head held high and his uniform pressly set against his body. He walked in with a semi-frustrated look on his face. He made his way over to the stairs and looked over at Lennox with concerned look. “Is everything already, Captain? I do remember you saying that the Autobots wouldn’t be interfering with our tour.”

“That’s not the problem.” Will groaned looking back up at the catwalk. He pointed to Dorothy and sighed. “That’s our problem. But at this point, I think this is more of your problem.”

Dorothy finally looked at the man to see fear in his eyes. The military officer slowly backed away from the catwalk and tried to make a run for it. Dorothy growled as he did, taking out her gun and firing a warning shot past him to stop moving, which he did. The man turned around and looked at clearly agitated woman. He gulped and walked back to the catwalk, trying not to make eye contact with the woman.

“Ryder.” Dorothy said with a deadpan tone.

“Hey, Dorothy. Been a long time, huh?” the man named Ryder spoke up, wearily staring at the woman. “Pennsylvania, right?”

“Yeah.” she continued in the same tone, but slowly got more and more angered. “I haven’t seen you since that car crash and you left me to die in the passenger seat!”

Barricade perked up at that, as well as Bee. The police car remembered Dorothy’s brother mentioning something about her getting into an accident. Was this what he meant? Barricade was going to get up, but the mech attached to his chassis pushed him back down, giving him the sign to relax and to not get involved.

“That…” the military officer replied, hesitating a bit. “That was an accident! I didn’t know you were still alive!”

“You could have checked my pulse, or something!” Dorothy argued back. “At least I got out of the car before it burned down around me! You selfless little jerk, and you wonder why I dumped you!”

“You dumped me?!” Ryder yelled. “I dumped you because you couldn’t deal with all of my experimental projects for Sector Seven! I end up getting a really good position doing what I like and you dis me for it!”

“No, I dumped you for leaving me in a burning car so you could save you precious technology from getting destroyed.” Dorothy stressed. “And since Sector Seven is gone, I’m guessing you’re deciding to switch sides and help us with our Decepticon problem? That’s so kind of you, robot killer. Welcome to the Autobots, where everyone on the team is a fragging alien robot! When do the probes and electric cabling get here, huh?”

“I’m not...that’s not what I’m doing anymore!” Ryder tried to explain. “I’m trying to save that planet! And coming to work with N.E.S.T. was my best option, so deal with it! And why the heck are you even here? Are they pulling the police into this now too?”

“No, just my police car happens to be a giant alien robot from outer space and will not hesitate to shoot you if you don’t leave!” Dorothy stated, eyeing Barricade from where she was standing. “So let me make this clear to you now. I am the human liaison for cybertronian rehabilitation and redemption. If you touch any one of the Autobots, or any cybertronian who is in this base with permission and I hear about it, I won’t miss my shot next time!”

“And this is why we should keep moving.” Lennox randomly stated and dragged Ryder out of the main room.

 _::Umm...who was that?::_ Bee asked from across the room as he watched Dorothy finally calm down from her outburst. _::And what about...electric cabling?::_  
  
“Hmm? Oh, Ryder.” Dorothy said, sounding completely normal and not enraged. “He was my first and only boyfriend, and as you heard, for a good reason. He left me in a burning car to die because he was trying to save some stupid piece of garage for Sector Seven, who he worked for as an internship. I had two degree burns on my back and my arms and I had three broken bones. I was in the hospital for a whole month because of that jerk. Also, he’s the one who designed all the cybertronian capturing devices like the electric cables, offlining EMPS, and his favorite, the spark remover. Very sick person.”

Bumblebee shuddered at the mention of the electric cabling, having experienced that one first hand, and didn’t even want to know how the other devices did. He looked at Dorothy with dimmed optics, afraid to have that human working with them. _::He won’t...he won’t use those on us, right?::_ the mech asked, a little fearful.

Barricade growled and hugged his boyfriend closer to his chassis. “Better not. I’d rip his head off if he touched you.” He felt Bee nuzzled into his plating, which meant the younger mech felt safe and was happy with that answer.

Dorothy laughed and sighed, looking in the direction of where Ryder walked off to. “I called dibs, Barricade. Wait in line. If anyone touches you guys, a bullet is going through someone’s head and I’m certainly not going to regret it.”

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Ryder van Druid was very upset. Why? Because his ex-girlfriend had sided with the only things in the world that actually mattered to him and his goals.

The scientist walked down the corridor, making his way to the main lab, where a testing was taking place. The man’s lab coat was presine white, making it look as if it was brand new and just washed. He finally found the room he was looking for and walked into the lab with a smile on his face. He and four other scientists stood in the room as the experiment continued.

Now, Ryder van Druid had learned a lot of things about cybertronians in his time working for Sector Seven, like how this beings were sentient and could feel pain. Pain affected them as if they were human and weapons could leave wounds that hurt and sting for days. This man had learned this all through a lot of cell phone drones made from the Allsparks’ energy. But this time, he had an actual subject to test his devices on.

In the middle of the laboratory, there was a glass box big enough to fix an animal inside. But there wasn’t an animal inside of this box. Inside of this box sat a sliver robot, looking to be the size of a child, all restrained in electrified cabling and a restriction collar around its neck cables. It looked scared, injured and very hopeless as the five humans standing around it wrote down notes on sheets of paper before shocking the poor robot again.

This robot’s name was Frenzy and he just wanted to go back home.

Ryder stepped forward, walking up to the glass and tapping on it to get the mech’s attention. The little droid’s helm snapped upwards to see the man standing in front of the box and cowared a bit. He didn’t like this man at all. This man wanted to kill him and never cared about anything else. Frenzy hissed at the man, wanting him to go away, but that only got him shocked by his restraints.

“Hello there, little guy.” the man cooed as if he was talking to a child. “How are we doing today?”

Frenzy didn’t say anything to the man, afraid of getting hurt or worse. He lowered his helm and shied away from the scientist.

“Aww, come on.” Ryder tried to coax the mech to say something. “I’m no going to hurt you. I just wanted to say hello.”

The scientist was lying and Frenzy knew it. The man placed his hand into the box and hovered it above Frenzy’s helm, waiting. The silver mech knew this game the human played. He wanted to him to lift his helm up to pet, stroke, do anything to before he walked away and the torture started all over again. Frenzy didn’t want to do it, but the mech has had such a loss of physical contact from being locked up in the box, or a cage that he needed it. He lifted his helm up against the man’s hand and the petting started.

“I have news, little guy.” Ryder spoke, trying to get the mech to come out of his shell a bit. “I found a friend of yours.”

Frenzy looked wearily at the man with dim red optics. A friend? Frenzy didn’t have any friends on Earth. His siblings were all still with Boss, so it couldn’t have been them. The silver mech thought for a moment before he froze in fear and whimpered a bit. The man had found his other friend, the Decepticon he had come to Earth with. The man had found Barricade.

“Oh don’t worry.” the scientist reassured. “I don’t have him just yet, but you two will have a little family reunion soon. Apparently, he’s working with the Autobots, or something because I saw him at their base.”

Frenzy didn’t like the sound of that. If Barricade was working with the Autobots, then something must have happened with Starscream. The two mech always hated each other, so it was the only thing that made sense. Barricade wouldn’t defect without a purpose. “Frenzy want to g-go home.”

“I know you do.” Ryder answered back. “But you can’t because you belong to me. And once I get Dorothy out of the way, I can finally continue on with my plans for the government. But in the meantime…” The man removed his hand and moved away from the box as Frenzy heard the generators start up again.

The little mech’s optics widen in fear and he pressed his servos against the glass, trying to push his way up. The restraints kept him on the floor, not allowing him to move up and out. The tiny mech was trapped in a box with a mad scientist looking at him. He wanted his brothers, he wanted his boss, he wanted his friends. The little mech couldn’t do anything about it though.

“Frenzy want to go home! Frenzy want to go-AAAHHH!”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might plan on writing a BeeCade shorts work. Tell me topics to write about them and I'll see why will happen with it.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frenzy escapes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

All Frenzy wanted was to go home, but sadly, home right now was a dark cage in the corner of a laboratory where there was no light, no energon, or any source of comfort at all.

Everyday was the same for him. The scientists would coming to do an observation on the small mech, watching him for a good ten minutes before leaving. Then Dr. Ryder comes in and torments him about each day getting better and less painfully, but he always lied about that. Then all the tests would start. He would end up in that box for the rest of the day until they placed him back in the cage with a cup of oil and left. 

Frenzy, the young mech himself, wasn’t doing so good. There was no energon, so he always felt empty and starving all the time, even if the oil was keeping him alive. The lack of physical affection was haunting him everyday, even those Dr. Ryder would pet him every so often. That touch wasn’t full of affection, but obsession and greed. Also, the mech could barely sleep from all the ghost pains from previous experiments and other tests. He would end up conking off in the middle of a test, and the scientists would either shock him for it, or give him some sort of other punishment.

The one thing the mech knew though was that he needed to get out of here to find Barricade. The little mech slowly onlined his optics, but they were dim. He didn’t like it when the scientists came to check on him, being that it made him feel uncomfortable. So, he was curled up in the back of the cage and waited it out until they left. Frenzy crawled up to the front of the cage and stuck his arm through the bar gaps, which he could fit through. The coast was clear, for now, but the small mech knew exactly where he was going. 

There was a desktop on the other side of the room, allowing access to the files in Dr. Ryder’s database. Frenzy squeezed himself through the bars, his plating getting crushed a bit, but slowly get down to the floor. The mech was only three feet tall, so being in a cage that was about eleven feet off the ground kinda made it hard to get down to the floor. Once the tiny mech did, he looked over at the security camera and made sure it was still off. The camera wasn’t active since the guard didn’t get up as early as the scientists did.

The little silver Decepticon made his way across the floor slowly, since the lack of sleep and energon was making him weaker than usual. The mech climbed up onto the chair that was in front of the desk and pulled himself up onto it, struggling a bit at first. He sat on the chair for a minute, letting his body rest before he stood up. His legs shook as Frenzy stood up, making him have to grab the edge of the desk for support. The little mech pushed the keyboard out of the way and climbed up onto the desk to get closer to the computer. 

Frenzy knelt in front of the monitor and sat back on his heels. He detached a USB cord from a side compartment in his forearm, since he wasn’t able to use his usual method since the restriction collar made it impossible for him to transform anything. He plugged in the cord to the computer and watched it activate. The mech started to search in the database, hacking his way into Dr. Ryder’s more personal files. He got passed it, but it made him tired from the amount of work he was doing to break down all the firewalls. The little hacker came up to a search bar finally and when to type in the keyword.

“D-o-r-t-h-y H-a-v-e-n.” Frenzy spoke out loud as he typed. He pressed the magnify glass at the end of the bar and waited for the computer to come up with his answer. “Dorothy Haven” was a often mentioned name by the scientists that had locked him up here. Dr. Ryder apparently hated the woman for rejecting him, but Frenzy could clearly see other reasons why no female or male would want to date this man. The doctor also mentioned something about the woman working with the Autobots and Barricade, so the best thing to do was to find the woman.

The computer stopped searching and nothing came up. The little mech looked worryingly at the monitor and wondered if Dr. Ryder had deleted all the information on he had on Dorothy and looked back at the search bar. He read over the name and it sounded just like Dr. Ryder pronounced it, but realized that there was supposed to be another “o” in between the “r” and the “t”. He retyped it and waited for the information to show up.

Luckily, the mad scientist had a whole bio filled out about his last mate. He read over the woman’s file, saving her address and other important information into his processor for later use. Frenzy stopped at her job title for a second and a little hope glimmer in his optics. It said that she was the human liaison that took care of the rehabilitation and redemption of cybertronians. That meant that she worked with cybertronians with dark pasts and torture experiences, like him. The woman would keep him safe from Dr. Ryder and that’s all that matter.

The little mech jumped when he heard the sound of the generator for the room turn on and the lights flashed on. He looked back at the security camera and saw that it was turning on, which made the mech panic more. Dr. Ryder was on his way and he was out of his cage. Frenzy jumped onto the chair and then to the ground, optics scanning the room for a place to hide. He looked over near the cages and saw a little gap between the wall and the cells. He ran across the room, even though his legs hurt and he was exhausted, and pushed himself into the gap. He moved all the way to the back wall and stayed completely silent as he heard footsteps.

Frenzy heard the man enter, whistling to himself as he walked near the cage that he was supposed to be in. The man stopped whistling and looked around the room. The little bot followed where his head had turned and realized that he was looking at the computer. It was still logged in, but not on the file he was looking at. Frenzy was still screwed and curled up into a ball to hide himself from the man.

“Come out, little guy.” the mad scientist called as he started to walk away the room. “You haven’t bee very good lately, haven’t you?”

Frenzy felt his collar start to buzz and instinctively covered his mouth to keep from screaming out when a shock emitted from the collar squeezing his neck cables. The shocks came one after another, making Frenzy start to grow tired and pain ridden. His frame felt like it was on fire and his digits started to twitch because of the aftershock. The small mech felt coolant build up in his optics and they threatened to fall from behind them. He didn’t want to start crying, since he had been trying so hard to show Dr. Ryder that he wasn’t afraid, but that was slowly slipping. 

The shocks stopped after a while, but Frenzy kept his servos over his mouth. He knew the man would start shocking him again at some point. The man stayed still for a moment before turning around and walked towards the gap where the little mech has hiding. He squatted down and stared at the tiny mech curled up in the back corner of the room stuck between a wall and a hard place. “Hello there. Why are you out of your cage, little guy?”

Frenzy didn’t answer as the coolant that had built up had started to fall. He was scared. Dr. Ryder was going to punishment, which wasn’t good. The man had horrible ways to torture a cybertronian and the little mech didn’t want to be hurt again. He shook his helm and curled up tighter on himself to try and hide. 

The man growled a bit and reached into the gap to fish the mech out. Frenzy jumped and swung his servos in front of him as protection from the man and slices his claws against the man’s hand. Dr. Ryder’s hand shot back and he held it, observing the little flesh wound the cybertronian had given him. He smirked a bit and looked at the mech curled up in that small space, who was too afraid to move. “Alright, you want to play that way? So be it.”

Frenzy wasn’t prepared for the amount of voltage that came out of the collar and screamed into his servos, making the cry muffled slightly. He started to cry now, not being about to feel anything since the shock shorted out his sensors for a quick moment. His vision became extremely blurry and his audio receptors were ringing. He didn’t even see or feel Dr. Ryder grab him by the collar and pulled him out of his hiding spot. 

The scientist held the limp mech up by the collar and tilted the little mech’s helm up. “What did you research on that computer, Frenzy? I know you looked something up?”

The tiny mech was too tired to answer. His voice box was shot at this point, the mechanics shorting out because of the shock. He just wanted the man to leave him alone. The scientist growled and opened up the cage that Frenzy was supposed to be in and threw him in, but didn’t close the cage. Frenzy shook as he pushed himself up to look at the man fearfully, moving back a bit.

Suddenly, Frenzy had a burst of courage and felt a little anger. He didn’t deserve to be treated like this and he didn’t want to be in this cage anymore. He wanted to go home and see his siblings and his friend.The mech stood up on his pedes shakily, and yelled some sort of war cry as he lunged forward out of the cage and toward the man. Dr. Ryder was too busy thinking about what the little mech was doing that he didn’t see Frenzy charge at him. 

Frenzy was on the floor and groaned. He looked over and saw that he had tackled the man to the ground and he had a large stretch mark over his chest that was outlined by the rip in his shirt. All the courage that Frenzy had suddenly disappeared and all the fear was back. Dr. Ryder sat up and looked over at the mech, seeing that he had actually tried to hurt him and growled at the little robot. The mech didn’t hesitate in getting up as fast as he could and running straight towards the door, pushing himself out of the room. 

The outside of the room was foreign to him. It was a hallway, with a hall leading off into more on either side. He had no idea where he was, but decided that it was better just to start running in a direction for Dr. Ryders could get him. He picked a direction and started running, not caring how tired and hurt he was. He just wanted to get out of here.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

“Dorothy! Someone left a CD player on the doorstep for you!”

Dorothy looked up from the bowl she was mixing ingredients in to lean to the side as Darren walked into the kitchen. He was carrying a broken CD player, dented and scratched in some parts. It sparked a bit, but didn’t seem to shock Darren at all. “Someone left this for me?”

“Yeah, here’s the note.” Darren replied handed her a note with writing on it. Dorothy took it and read it, saying something about it being a gift from someone. “Pretty weird gift, huh?”

“Maybe Chief dropped it off?” Dorothy questioned, placing the note down on the counter. “Just put it in the living room and all take a look at it later.”

“Okay.” Darren replied, walking back the way he came to put it down somewhere in that general area. The sound of someone grabbing their shoes and keys sounded from the hallway and the door opened. “I’m going out for the night.”

“Come back sober please! I don’t want to have to arrest you for drunk driving!” the woman yelled as the door closed. 

She was alone in the house, baking cookies since Barricade had told everyone at base that she cooks. So now, she was making cookies for Lennox’s squadron and a few for Sam since his mother asked him to bring her some. They were probably for Sam’s dad, which Dorothy didn’t mind, but made sure to make extra for the man. Barricade was out doing something with Bee in California since it was an off-day for her at work. So, Dorothy was alone...until something metal crashed in the living room.

Dorothy looked up and reflex kicked in, making the woman break into a gun stance with gun in hand. She stayed still, waiting for someone to say something, but no voice came from the next room. The small woman made her way into the living room, gun still in hand, but lowered. She looked over the room, noticing two things. One, the CD player was nowhere in sight and something on the coffee table was knocked off. Dorothy looked around again and holstered her gun, seeing nothing. She walked over to the table, picking up the knocked over mug and placed it back on the table. She looked around again, making sure no one was in here and froze.

Two small red optics where looking at her with fear in them. Dorothy didn’t move, knowing that red optics where a common trait of Decepticons. The mech was small, small enough to be a small child, but was hiding around from behind one of the bookshelves. The mech seemed to have pushed himself behind in the small gap there and was staring at her. Dorothy moved and the mech seemed to flinch.

Dorothy moved over closer to the bookshelf and kneeled down on the floor, sitting back on her legs so that she could see the little Decepticon better. He was silver, but more of a lighter color than she’s seen. The mech had energon leaking from different wounds over his body, small dents and scorch marks over its frame. The mech was shaking and was clinging onto the shelf as if it was the only thing keeping him upright.    
  
“Hi there.” she spoke softly. The small mech seemed to draw back a bit. “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you. Just tell me why you’re here and we don’t have to call the Autobots, okay?”

The mech stared at her for a while before shaking his helm and trembled a bit more. “H-Help.”

Dorothy nodded and moved a little closer. “It’s okay. I can help you. I just need you to come out from behind the bookshelf please.”

The tiny mech shook his helm again and cowered a bit. “D-Dorothy?”

The Decepticon knew her name, that was great. Her hand wanted to go for her gun, but knew the mech was already injured, so it wouldn’t make sense. So, she stayed calm and relaxed a bit. “Yes?”

“H-Help m-me.” the mech cried a bit, taking a step out from the bookshelf. “Y-You h-human A-Autobot?”

Dorothy nearly gasped when he saw the mech’s legs. They were completely shredded, as if he had been thrown into a blender and left to die. She now knew why the mech was so shaky. He couldn’t stand on this own two pedes without the risk of him falling over. He was scared, she could see that clearly, but he was very attentive to the movements she was making. “Can you walk over to me?”

“T-Too s-scared. T-Too h-hurt.” The silver mech started to cry, streams of coolant flowing down the mech’s face. “W-Want t-to g-go h-home. W-Want t-to s-see f-friend.”

Dorothy cautiously scooted over to where the little mech was trying to stand. He moved back a bit, but didn’t look as afraid anymore. She held out her hand for the mech to grab onto and the woman waited. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be afraid. I want to help you, but I can’t do that if can’t get you to my tools.”

The little mech hesitated in reaching out for the woman’s hand, not wanting her to move. His clawed digits wrapped around the woman’s hand and he steadied himself, grabbing on with his other servo. He clung onto the woman’s arm, not wanting her to move at all until he was comfortable. He looked up at Dorothy’s warm smile and felt a little better. He pointed to the collar around his neck and shook his helm. “O-Off.”

Dorothy looked at the collar and nodded. It was a fiber collar, like ones used on dogs, but it was modified with a charger and an amplifier. She looked back at the table and grabbed a pair of scissors. She tilted the mech’s helm up to get better look and smiled when she found the clasp. “Keep you helm up and don’t move. I don’t want to cut you by accident.”

The little mech kept his frame still as the woman snapped the clasp of the collar and it felt off. The cables underneath were raw and burnt from the amount of electricity probably used. The little mech smiled and crawled into the woman’s lap, wanting to be closer to a heat source. He laid himself against the woman’s chest and closed his optics, soaking in the much needed touch and warmth. “F-Frenzy.”

Dorothy looked down at the mech and something in her head clicked. This was Barricade’s friend. Why the heck was he so damaged? Where had he been? Did Barricade know he was still alive? She smiled and moved her arm to support the mech form behind. “Hello, Frenzy. Did you come looking for Barricade?”

Frenzy nodded and nuzzled into the crook of the woman’s neck. Dorothy had seen this kind of affection before. The mech must have been severely touch-starved, being that he was trying to be as close to her as possible. She smiled and wrapped her arms around the mech protectively as she stood up. She couldn’t fix the mech here, she didn’t have the tools for it. The woman would need to take the little mech to Ratchet. “Okay. You just rest.”

Frenzy smiled and already liked the woman. She was kind and sweet, just like a sister or an aunt would be. She never yelled at him once, which was great for a chance. The woman brought him into the kitchen and opened up a cabinet. She pulled out a box that had a hazardous sign on it placed it on the counter. She then reached for a warm mug, one off of the heater in the kitchen, and pour some of the pink liquid in side of the cup. He looked at the liquid as she put it away again and realized it was energon.

“This for Frenzy?” he asked, making grabby hands at the cup. 

“Yes, it is. Drink it and then you can go and rest some more.” Dorothy replied, handing off the cup and watching as the mech started to down it. “Don’t spill and slow down, okay?”

Frenzy eyed her and nodded, taking small sips of the energon until it was all gone. The little mech loved the energon, since he hasn’t had any in the last few months. It was warm and filling, but it also made him really sleepy. The little mech yawned and leaned back down onto Dorothy’s shoulder, resting his helm there. This was perfect and he wanted to recharge like this forever. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Dorothy said as she walked back to the couch in the living room. She laid down on it, letting the little mech sprawl out on his front and conk out into recharge. A small smile appeared on his face and he snuggled into Dorothy’s body, his servos gripping the woman’s shirt. He was just like a child, and maybe was one. His broken english could mean that he was made even younger than Bee.

Dorothy pulled her phone out from her pocket and dialed a number. It rang and a voice answered. “Hey, Optimus.” Dorothy replied to the hello asked. “I need Ratchet to get the med bay ready for later and for Ironhide to not be in the building. Thanks.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy gets pissed at Ironhide and Frenzy feels a little bit better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to mention I update on the weekdays only. Hope you enjoy!

Dorothy didn’t know what to expect when she showed up with any Decepticon, but she didn't like the face that she had multiple giant cannons in her face.

First of all, Barricade was out of town, so she had to get her brother to drop her off in Tranquility and have Optimus picked her up. Also, the fact that she couldn't tell the leader of the Autobots that she had a Decepticon in her backpack got on her nerves. She usually told Optimus everything about her life, since he was interested for some reason, but this was for Frenzy's safety and promised the little mech that she wouldn't tell anyone until they got there.

Second of all, since Barricade and Bumblebee were up north in Oregon for another two days with Sam, he wouldn't know about Frenzy until he got back. Optimus knew that Dorothy needed the med bay for something, so he probably commed Bee to tell him that. Barricade would be thrown into a panic and probably start to worry. She was his first human friend and only human friend. The police car knew she could handle herself, but he would worry.

Dorothy could see the entrance to the base coming up and sighed in relief. The sooner she could get Frenzy to Ratchet, the sooner she could go back home and kept the little guy safe. Taking care of Frenzy for a night was...interesting to say the least. He was very clingy and asked like a toddler almost. His broken English was easy enough to understand, but sometimes his voice would change to clicks and high-pitched beeps that she couldn’t understand. It was probably Cybertronian, so no luck there.

The woman also decided to let the little mech sleep with her, since she knew that Darren liked to sneak out at night and she didn’t need him screaming bloody murder if he saw Frenzy roaming around. She made a little nest of pillows up by the headboard of her bed and placed some blankets over them. Dorothy did end up doing some major repairs, like patching up open wounds and fixing Frenzy’s starvation. The energon in her cabinet was usually for Barricade when he was home, but she didn’t think the police car would mind.

So, Frenzy fell asleep as soon as he was tucked into his little nest. He looked peacefully for once and not completely terrified of everything around him. Dorothy unfortunately couldn’t sleep at all that night. She couldn’t fall asleep for some reason and decided to stay up and read something to get her mind to tire itself out. She had finally become tired, but Frenzy had woken up. He was crying and curled up in a tight ball in his nest, clicking loudly and whimpering. Dorothy had to hold him for a few minutes for get him to calm down.

The little CD player was now in her backpack, sitting between her legs in Optimus’ cabin and sleeping again. Dorothy was completely exhausted and almost fell asleep on the way to base. Optimus never really mentioned anything about her demeanor and guessed her work at the police station had something to do with it. The big rig pulled up at the main hangar and saw that Dorothy was staring blankly out of the window. “Ms. Haven?” he asked.

The small woman’s head snapped back up and looked at the main dash. “Yeah? Oh, thanks for the ride Optimus. I appreciate it.” she replied, opening the cabin door and stepping out. He carefully placed her bag on her back and walked into the main hangar, hearing the Prime transform and follow behind. 

“May I ask what is in you bag?” the red and blue mech questioned, naturally curious to why she was being so careful with it.

“You’ll see later.” she told him, probably guessing that Ratchet would mention something to him later after the whole examination was over. She felt something shift in her bad a bit and a few fearful clicks. Dorothy sighed and tapped the top of the bag twice, signaling Frenzy that it was okay and he was safe. The shifting stopped and something leaned up against her. “You’re okay. Just a little bit longer.” she whispered, knowing that Frenzy would hear it.

She walked into the Autobot hangar to be met with abrupt screaming and yelling of the human variety. Dorothy tripped a bit as the weight on her back started clinging to her shoulders threw the backpack. She turned her head to see that the bag was shaking slightly and more clicks were escaping from it. Optimus also seemed to be looking at her with a bit of concern. She sighed, walking to a side wall of the main room and setting her bag down against it. Frenzy was probably not used to the loud noises and was got scared again.

Dorothy finally looked at the center of the room to see the one and only Dr. Ryder van Druid having a hissy fit over something. She groaned and walked over to where he and one of his scientist friends were talking about something important, it seemed. She didn’t really hear most of the conversation until she was closer to them and their angry expression weren’t really making the situation any better.

“...there’s still no way for us to find the little vermin! The tracking beacon must of broke when he felt on the floor.” Ryder stressed to the other scientist, looking a bit crazy, but that was to be expected of this man.

“What lab experiment did you guys lose this time?” Dorothy asked, scaring the crap out of both of the men standing in front of her. “Don’t tell me, your mouse escaped through a hole in the wall?”   


“What do you want, Haven?” her ex-boyfriend growled out, making Dorothy cringe a bit.

“For you to burn in Hell for once would be splendid.” she answered back, moving the other scientist out of the way gently so she could continue the argument. “I could help arrange that if you agree. I know a guy who owns a fire pit in the middle of Phoenix Square. I’m sure he’d let me use it for recreational purposes.”

“Are you crazy?” he asked, a tone of fear forming in his voice.

“Not as crazy as you are.” she replied, flicking the man on the nose and walking back to her bag. “I mean, you were the one who tried to murder me in a burning car. I could technically arrest you right now.”

When Dorothy picked up her bag, it was still trembling. She held it in front of her and carried it over to the catwalk, passing right by the two men standing as her with a blank look on their faces. Ryder seemed to be more curious about what was in her bag any the woman herself from the way he was watching the woman move the bag up the stairs of the catwalk and onto one of the desk. The thing that really caught his attention was how it was chirping and clicking in random stressed patterns. 

“What’s in the bag, Dorothy?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s clicking.”

“None of your business what’s in my bag, so shut it.” she shot back, suddenly becoming very defensive over the bag and its contents. “Also, it’s Autobot stuff. I called Optimus earlier that Ratchet needed to take a look at it.”

“And since when am I not an Autobot?” Ryder asked back, threatening to climb up the stairs to get face to face with the woman.

“Since you started experimenting on their races and tried to probe Bumblebee.” she answered back, not making eye contact with the man until the last part of her statement. “Oh yes, I know about that. Him and Barricade were so kind to fill me in on what conspired. Now, shoo.”

Ryder growled and backed off, raising his hands up in defense. He marched back down the stairs and waved for the other scientist to follow. The two felt the room and walked off one of the hallways of the hangar. Dorothy sighed and turned back to her backpack to make sure Frenzy was okay. The bag had stopped shaking, which was a good sign, but the clicking and chirping didn’t stop. She sighed a bit and pressed her hand up against the side of the bag. The clicking stopped and a servo pressed up against hers from inside the bag. 

Over the past two days, she had picked up on some of the Cybertronian that Frenzy seemed to be speaking in. The clicking and chirping seemed to be some kind of calling, or a string of words that meant that he was scared. Everytime Dorothy would be away from him for a long period of time, going to work or being in the garage for too long, the string of loud clicks and chirps would start up from the living room and that meant that Frenzy was either scared or needed some attention. Other things like “yes” and “no” were getting easier to understand as well, since Dorothy would ask Frenzy yes/no questions to help with his English.

The loud footsteps from the other side of the hangar made Dorothy look up from the backpack. Ratchet had walked in from outside the hangar as he was probably commed by Optimus was she was here. “I heard that you needed the medical bay for something? You can have it, but if you destroy anything, I swear-”

“Don’t worry, Ratchet.” Dorothy cut him off before he could finish his threat. “I’m not going to destroy anything, I promise. I actually am going to need some help with this.”

“What for?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow at the little human. “Did something happen with Barricade and Bumblebee?”

“No, but this does have something to do with Barricade.” Dorothy answered, moving the backpack in front of her and holding it in her arms. “But you have to promise that no one takes out weapons. And that means you especially Ironhide.”

The weapons specialist had walked in after Ratchet and gave the human a weird look. “Whatcha got in the bag that so dangerous?”

“It’s not dangerous, not now at least, but you need to promise no weapons.” he threatened all of the mechs standing in the room. “I don’t want it to get scared and run off.”

Ironhide grumbled, but nodded along with the rest of the Autobots present. Dorothy sighed and unzipped the bag to see Frenzy sitting in there with his optics wide in fear. The clicking started up against, but the woman had that covered by now. She placed the backpack back on the table and held out a hand inside of the bag. Frenzy hesitated, still scared, but reached up and grabbed the human’s hand. He nuzzled his helm against it, feeling a little better and began to stand up all the way.

Dorothy smiled and carefully helped the little mech stand up the rest of the way, taking him into her arms since he couldn’t stand by himself. That’s why they were here in the first place. Of course, none of the Autobots knew that, so Dorothy turned around to a bunch of weapons in her face, all aiming at Frenzy. Ratchet had been pushed out of the way and Optimus was just standing there with a confused expression.

Frenzy was the first one to react to the situation, clicking and chirping in fear and turning to hide himself from the weapons. He ended up having to turn his back and bury himself in the crook of Dorothy’s arm as he began to fret. Dorothy took a protective step back and held Frenzy closer to her body, trying to protect him. She could feel the coolant start to leak into the corner of her blank tank top and knew by the hiccuping sounds that Frenzy was crying about. “D-Dorothy, p-please! D-Don’t w-wanna d-die!”

“No one is dying, Frenzy.” she reassured the little mech curled up in her arms and she glared up at Ironhide. Her emotions changed from fearful, to motherly, to downright pissed in a matter of seconds. He growled and turned her front away from the large cannons Ironhide had. “And what the frag do you think you’re doing?! You promised no weapons!”

“Ya never told us it was that pitspawn!” Ironhide argued back, gesturing his cannon towards Frenzy. “What is it with you and helping Decepticons?!”

“Look, he came to me for help, and I decided to help him!” Dorothy argued back, her voice growing in volume and anger. “He’s damaged and he needed medical help! I am a mechanic, not a robotic scientist! Cars, planes, and trucks I can do! Tiny robots, not so much!”

“And you brought him here off all places?!” the weapons specialist stressed with an angered tone. “Do you even know who he works for?!”

“I do actually!” Dorothy yelled at the black GMC. “He’s name is Frenzy. He was sent to Earth to work with Barricade to find the pair of glasses that would lead cybertronians to the Allspark. He actually works for the Decepticon TIC and communications officer, Soundwave. He has five brothers; Ravage, Rumble, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, and Ratbat. He hasn’t seen them in over four years! He happened to tell me this all last night during a very concerning conversation because he had a spark terror about him never seeing them again because of, you guessed it, the Autobots! Especially you, Ironhide! So, back the frag off!”

Optimus was somewhat surprised over how protective the young woman had gotten over Frenzy. She had done the same with Barricade, which is why he offered her the job of being one of the human liaisons that worked with rehabilitation and redemption. She was kind and gentle towards the mechs that needed it and harsh against those who threatened her work. It scared him to know that the woman could change emotions so fast, but guessed that it was a part of human nature and Dorothy being a female of the species.

“Ironhide, stand down.” Optimus ordered, earning a surprised look from the mech mentioned.

“Are ya kidding me?” he asked, looking at Optimus with a confused expression. “That there is a Decepticon spy, and you’re tellin’ me to stand down?!”

“We should let Dorothy explain what happened before we make any accusations about why Frenzy was asking for help.” Optimus tried to calm the weapons specialist. “And I do not think that Frenzy would be doing anything against us for sometime if he came for medical assistance.”

Ironhide groaned and retracted his weapons. He walked away and down one of the hallways, getting away from the predicament in general. There were two cons who now knew where the base was. Even if Barricade was unconscious and Frenzy was in a backpack the entire ride, he didn’t trust the fact that Soundwave could be around any corner and watching them. The last thing they needed was Starscream gunning down their afts with a full firing squad of Decepticons.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Frenzy felt Dorothy sit down on something and lifted his helm up to look at her. Her thumb was rubbing a piece of plating on his helm and the whole atmosphere around her felt safe and homey. They were still in the Autobot base, he could tell by the hangar walls, but he didn’t feel as threatened as he did before. Dried coolant was stuck to his face and he slowly brought his servo to rub his optics. He was still tired from not getting any sleep last night and could see that Dorothy got none either.

He nuzzled his helm back into the crook of the woman’s elbow and yawned a bit, a small chirp escaping from his voice box. Dorothy seemed to have noticed that Frenzy had started moving since he looked down at the mech in her arms and smiled. Frenzy smiled back and looked over at the end of the catwalk to see that the Autobot leader and his medic were still present. The large mech with the guns seemed to have disappeared. 

“G-Guns all g-gone?” he stuttered a bit, his voice box still tired from all the crying and chirping he did.

“Yeah, ‘Hide’s gone.” the woman answered back, smiling. “I scared him off.”

“R-Really?” Frenzy asked, curious to how the human did it. “With c-cannons?”

“No.” she answered back, chuckling a bit. “I just get mad at people for trying to hurt the people that I care about.”

Frenzy’s optics widened in happiness. He had heard the woman’s voice and could admit that she kinda sounded like Megatron when he got mad. It was almost funny, but he knew that Dorothy would never be a Decepticon. She was too nice and kind for that. Frenzy looked over towards where the Prime was standing and got worried. “P-Prime gonna p-put me in a c-cage?” he asked, not wanting what happened at the lab to happen again.

“What?! No, of course not!” Dorothy immediately reassured. “Why would you think that?”

Before Frenzy could say something again, the little mech froze and curled up again. He watched as the man came up the steps of the catwalk and was smirking at him. Frenzy whimpered a bit and hid his face back in the crook of Dorothy’s upper arm. He could feel his neck cables closing up and his legs start to ache more than they did. The little mech didn’t want to go back to the lab.

“So this was the oh so important thing you had to show the Autobots?” he heard the man say, clearly mocking the little mech. “A cowardly Decepticon?”

“He’s not cowardly, Ryder!” Dorothy shout back, defending her ground. “He’s just scared. There’s a difference between being a coward and being scared. At least he’s not running away.”

“I didn’t think he could with his legs all mangled up like that.” Ryder commented. “What did you do? Put him in the blender halfway?”

“I didn’t do any of this!” the woman shoot back, seemingly overpowering the scientist’s authority. “And you can go frag off! He clearly doesn’t like you!”

“Don’t say that.” the man joked and Frenzy felt Dr. Ryder move into his field. “Hey, little guy. Can you say hello back?”

Frenzy instantly felt pain in his legs when the scientist said that and curled up a bit more, memories coming back. Every morning, it was the same greeting before he was tortured. He didn’t want to hear that anymore. “D-Dorothy…” he whimpered as coolant began to fall again.

Dorothy growled and stood up, making Frenzy have to hold onto her arms for stability. Ryder backed up, minding the stairs behind them. “He clearly doesn’t want you here, so I suppose you take you leave now.” he growled a low tone, making Ryder back up more. The man hurried to leave and made his way out of the hangar, clearly over welcoming his stay. Dorothy said and looked back down at Frenzy, moving to sit on the stairs. “You okay?”

Frenzy looked up at her and shook his helm, coolant still falling. He sat up and sat on her lap, leaning forward against Dorothy’s body for warmth and comfort. Humans do have a EM field like cybertronians do, but their bodies seemed to still give off electronic signals of emotions. Dorothy’s “field” was warm, inviting, and very overprotective. She seemed to be a very motherly person, but didn’t seem old enough to have offspring yet. At least to Frenzy she didn’t.

“W-Wanna g-go h-home.” he cried out and Dorothy hugged him, knowing the little mech was very homesick. The silver mech heard loud footsteps and turned his helm slightly to see that Prime had walked over with his medic. He whimpered a bit, not knowing what they would do to him. Dorothy rubbed his back a bit, knowing he was afraid and the little mech un-tensed a bit. “F-Frenzy s-sorry f-for c-c-causing t-trouble.” he stammered as he tried to apologize for something unknown. 

The Prime seemed a little surprised, but smiled a bit. “It is quite alright, Frenzy. I would like to know how you came to be with Ms. Haven and why you are damaged.”

Frenzy didn’t want to answer that. Dr. Ryder wanted Barricade, so he told anyone what happened, the scientist might go after Barricade, too. “E-Escaped from l-lab. D-Dorothy in t-the databanks. L-Listed a-as a s-safe h-human and an A-Autobot. W-Went for h-help and s-safety.” he tried to explain, but he was scared. He was face to face with the Autobot leader and he didn’t want to get scraped. 

Ratchet could see the mech was having some problems with his translator since he was speaking in broken English. He didn’t have his scanner on servo, so he couldn’t see if anything else was wrong. He looked at Dorothy, who seemed to be watching the little Decepticon very closely. “Dorothy, did Frenzy show any signs of other problems while with you?”

“Exhaustion, starvation, touch-starvation, extreme loss of energon, spark terrors, ghost pains, small minor incisions over frame and scorch marks made by electrocution.” the human listed off immediately after he asked, seemingly knowing what he was going to say. The mech was slightly impressed. “Also homesick and family detachment. So, he needs some help.”

Optimus hummed in agreement. Frenzy looked between the Autobots and Dorothy and smiled. He wrapped his arms around the woman’s neck and hugged her. He felt safe and secure and like he was back home with his siblings. “Frenzy want to thank you.” he said happily.

“No problem, Frenzy.” Dorothy answered back, hugging the little mech back. “You’re important and whatever happened didn’t deserve to happen to you.”

Frenzy started crying again, but this time it was out of happiness.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade and Frenzy finally get want they want.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Barricade was an emotional mess today and all he wanted to do was to sit and hold his new family forever.

Barricade and Bumblebee had the best vacation they could ever imagine for themselves. Lots of trails for driving and racing on. A lot of private land owned by the Witwickys’ relatives, which meant places that Barricade and Bee didn’t have to sleep in their vehicle modes at night. They got to cuddle and kiss and just be themselves around each other without the Autobots around. Luckily, Sam and the other humans haven’t found out about their relationship yet, which was a good thing for know. Unfortunately, they never really had their first full on kiss yet because something always interrupted them. All in all, Barricade was being to think that the universe didn’t want them to kiss at this point.

Barricade and his little lover were home for about five minutes before Optimus had called Bee about Dorothy being at base and having to use the med bay for something. That’s when Barricade started to panic. He was gone for a week and something already went wrong without him here. So, he and Bee made their way over to the base, which was about thirty minutes away from Tranquility and Barricade decided to put on his sirens the entire way. The perks of being a police car, Dorothy would say.

Optimus was waiting just outside the Autobot hangar when Barricade and Bumblebee pulled up. The police car transformed and started to look around frantically for his human friend. The ex-Decepticon looked up at Optimus with worried optics. “What happened?” he asked, starting to demand some answers from the Autobot leader. “Where’s Dorothy? Did Starscream attack her?”

“No, Dorothy is fine.” Optimus reassured. “She is just in the med bay with Ratchet. They told me to comm you once you got back into California.”

:: _ What? _ :: Bee asked, looking over at the med bay hangar about fifty feet away from them. :: _ What did she need to do in the med bay? Are you sure someone didn’t get hurt? _ ::

“I think the only one hurt is Ironhide.” Optimus commented, looking back at the grumpy weapons specialist, who was cleaning his guns and cannons. “She severely bruised the mech’s pride two days ago and he had not quite recovered yet.”

Barricade chuckled and looked over towards the medical hangar and started walking over. Bee was laughing as well and decided to follow Barricade before Ironhide knew they were there. He followed into the hangar behind Barricade and walked down the hall to the actually med bay, which was past the washracks. Bee froze for a moment, remembering how he was once in there scared out of his processor about being Barricade’s boyfriend. But now he was so comfortable about it that he smiled the thoughts off and continued to follow the police car. 

When Barricade walked into the med bay, there was Dorothy, sitting on the medical berth and perfectly fine. She was smirking up at him with a knowing look and Barricade smirked back. “You two enjoy your trip?” she asked, crossing her legs over each other as she sat on the edge of the berth. “Heard Oregon was beautiful this time of year.”

:: _ It was great! _ :: Bee called out, jumping forward and jumping up onto Barricade’s back. The police car stumbled a bit, but laughed as he steadied himself from the added weight.  _ ::We went racing on mountain trails and slept out in a meadow the whole time! My favorite part was cuddling. _ ::

“Bee, shush!” Barricade scolded him, looking around worryingly. “We’re supposed to keep that a secret.”

:: _ But Ratchet and Optimus technically already know. _ :: Bumblebee argued. :: _ The only one who doesn’t know it Ironhide and he’s all the way back in the main hangar. _ ::

“That wasn’t my point.” Barricade glared at the younger mech. “I just don’t want you shouting out to everyone in the Primus-forsaken base every five seconds. There are humans here, too.”

The scout blinked for a second and shied a bit, realizing what Barricade had meant.  _ ::Oh, right. Sorry. I just...you know. _ ::

Barricade chuckled and hugged the smaller mech, kissing the top of his forehelm. “Me too, Bee. Me too.”

Dorothy watched as the two mechs started at each other for a few moments and seemed to be waiting for the other to do something. The woman sighed and stood up from her seat, walking across it to where Ratchet was hovering over another berth. The medic was fixing Frenzy’s legs at that time, unbending some of the metal and putting it back in place to weld later. He was almost done, which was good since Barricade was here. The medic looked over at the human and smiled, nodding that she still had to wait.

Barricade held Bumblebee for the longest time, rubbing small circles mindlessly into the yellow and black mech’s back. He enjoyed just holding Bee close to him and having the little mech with him at all times. He felt a little bit whole again and the small mech was kinda a self-esteem boost that he needed every day. Of course, he still had Dorothy and work, but seeing Bee had become the highlight of his day. 

Barricade leaned down a bit and brought Bee’s face close to his, pressing their forehelms together. Bee got the message and a light blush appeared on his face. He retracted his vocoder and let Barricade see his scarred mouth, which he never really let anyone see. He felt ashamed of it, since he couldn’t speak without the help of his vocoder, but he trusted Barricade. He looked down, his optics not wanting to meet his lover’s because of the embarrassment he felt.

Barricade tilted up the mech’s helm and smiled warmly at the younger mech. Bee was nervous and shy when I came to his damaged mouth and voice box, the police knew this too well, but Barricade didn’t really mind. The ex-con cupped the mech’s face with one servo and kept his other arm around the yellow and black Autobot’s waist. He smirked a bit, showing off his sharp teeth before he leaned in and planted their lipplates against each other. He smiled and leaned in more.

The blue optics that belonged to the smaller mech shot up to look at the crimson ones that were very close now. He gasped silently, his optics going wide at the contact of the kiss that he had been hoping for. The scout sighed happily and kissed back, leaning upwards a bit to try and match his boyfriend’s height. His doorwings fluttered in excitement and happiness as their kiss grew deeper and Barricade lifted his lover up a bit to deepen the kiss on his side. Not once did the police car’s sharp teeth bite or slice Bumblebee’s lipplates and the little mech felt his spark do somersaults in his spark chamber. 

There was a slow clap in the background and the two mech looked over at the same time to see Dorothy smirking at them from across the room. Bee froze and his face became redden. Barricade, on the other servo, smirked and kissed the mech on the cheek before backing away. The little scout let his vocoder slide back over his mouth, but the feeling of the kiss was still there. Bumblebee looked at his boyfriend with bright optics and hugged him tightly. 

“Guessing that way your first one?” the woman asked, quirking a brow at the both of them. 

“Yeah, and luckily we didn’t have any interruptions this time.” Barricade commented as he wrapped his arms around the yellow and black mech to return the hug. He hummed in Bumblebee’s audio receptor and chuckled. “Love you, babe.”

Bumblebee giggled a bit, which made him blush even more that he did.  _ ::Love you too, Mr. Police Car. _ ::

“And done.” Ratchet’s voice carried through the room. The two mechs looked at the lime green medic as he leaned back up. “He’s all fixed. He should wake up in a couple of minutes.”

“Thank you, Ratchet.” Dorothy replied and moved over to whoever was on the berth. 

Barricade looked at his lover and then back to Dorothy. “Who did you guys bring in while we were gone?”

:: _ Yeah! Is it another Autobot? _ :: the young scout asked, jumping up and down in excitement before Barricade held the hyper mech down and kept him from knocking into anything.

“Well, no.” Dorothy answered. She turned around and knelt down, covering the figure that was laying in the birth. Barricade and Bee couldn’t see whoever was there, so they guessed it was some kind of mini-bot or a smaller Autobot. After a minute or so, Barricade heard a small yawn from the berth and something stretch out. It sat up and yawned again, seemingly happy with that woman being there.

“Dorothy? Frenzy all fixed?” the little mech asked, looking down at his legs and smiling. He didn’t seem to notice that Barricade was in the room yet. 

Barricade was now on the other side of the medical berth. With Frenzy being only three feet tall and the police car being sixteen, there was a large size difference, but the police car was smiling happily as he reached out to tap the little mech on the shoulder. The little Decepticon jerked a bit, looking around for the source of the touch and had to look behind him to see the black and white plated mech crouching there. “Hey there, buddy.”

Frenzy’s face lit up in pure joy as he gasped loudly. “BARRICADE!” the little mech yelled and got up to run over to the mech. His legs almost gave up from under him, but Dorothy had gotten up to catch the little mech before he fell. The woman chuckled a bit and help Frenzy the rest of the way over, even though the mech was squirming and fidgeting the entire time. When the little mech finally could reach out to his friend, he clasped onto Barricade’s face and nuzzled it.

Dorothy smiled and watched as Barricade brought his servos up to cup the little mech and keep his legs from dangling. “He missed you a lot. He kept having spark terrors about you never coming back.”

Barricade’s spark fell when he heard that, but he smiled all the same. “I missed you, too, Frenzy. Where have you been?”

“Humans.” the little Decepticon replied. “Them hurt Frenzy, but Dorothy help Frenzy get better. Dorothy good carrier.”

Dorothy sighed and gave an exhausted look back at the medic, who was enjoying the little reunion in the back of the room. “Why do you two call me that? You’re like thousands of years old and I’m 22. I can’t be your carrier.”

Frenzy’s happiness deflated a bit and Barricade gave her a worried expression. Frenzy reached out for her, but Dorothy was just out of reach. “But Dorothy take care of Frenzy. Dorothy take care of Barricade. Dorothy good carrier.”

“Frenzy, you have siblings and a parental figure of your own.” Dorothy tried to explain. “I can’t be your carrier. You’ll live a lot longer than I will. In about seventy years, I’ll probably...not be around anymore.”

Frenzy began to tear up and tried to reach out for Dorothy more, but Barricade was holding him in place. Barricade knew what Dorothy was saying was true and that the human could never be their parental guardian, since their species’ lifespan was significantly shorter than cybertronians were. Barricade was upset too, but he didn’t want Dorothy to know that, or Frenzy for that matter. “Frenzy, stop it. She’s right.” the ex-con stated, trying to get the small Decepticon to stop struggling with him.

Frenzy kicked and pounded his servos against Barricade’s servos, trying to get him to let go. The larger mech’s grip finally slipped and Frenzy bolted for the human. He latched onto the woman, coolant falling from his optics as he nuzzled his face into Dorothy’s middle. He didn’t want the woman to leave. The little Decepticon was safe with her, and he wanted to keep living with her so Ryder couldn’t get to him. “N-No! D-Dorothy s-stay! D-Dorothy g-good c-carrier! F-Frenzy d-don’t w-want c-carrier t-to l-leave!” the little con choked out.

“Frenzy. I told you I can’t!” the woman stressed to the little mech, trying to get him to go back to Barricade. “I have my work and my brother and my own family to worry about! I can’t take care off you all the time!”

“NO!” Frenzy yelled and tightened his grip around Dorothy, not wanting her to leave. “Frenzy safe with Dorothy! Frenzy have no family on Earth! Barricade want Dorothy to be carrier, too!”

Barricade sighed and reluctantly nodded his helm. “You did fix us, you know. You treated the both of us with kindness and you’ve helped us through our problems. I don’t know what the humans did to Frenzy, and he doesn’t know what happened to me, but you...didn’t just fix us physically.”

Dorothy growled in frustration and looked down at Frenzy. He was still crying and hugging her, which wasn’t helping her in the situation. She mentally cursed herself for getting so upset about this. She couldn’t handle being a parent. She was only 22 years old and she barely started her life on her own. The woman couldn’t even get someone to date her since she was so overprotective of herself and others. But Frenzy and Barricade needed her. And she needed them in return.

Dorothy knelt down and wrapped her arms around Frenzy, pulling the little mech into a tight hug. Frenzy flinched for a second, but sunk into the hug as he buried his helm in the crook of Dorothy’s neck. The little mech looked at the woman and say that she leaking some kind of liquid from her eyes as well. He looked at her curiously and nuzzled his helm against the strands of hair that were on that side of the woman’s head. “I’m never going to be able to get rid of you guys, huh?”

“Nope.” Barricade answered as he reached forward and pick up the woman from her spot on the medical berth. “You’re stuck with us.”

Dorothy sighed and wiped the tears from her eyes, blinking a few times to get rid of any coming. She looked down at Frenzy and the little mech was smiling at her. “Dorothy gonna be carrier now?” he asked with a little bit of hope in his voice.

“Yeah, I’ll be your carrier.” she admitted to finally as she squeezed Frenzy’s face to get him to giggle a bit. “And I’ll be the best Primus-forsaken carrier you’ve ever had. I have the best kids I could have ever asked for.”

Barricade chuckled and hugged the woman close to his face with Frenzy in between them. Dorothy sighed as they all hugged, happy to finally have someone else in her life than just her brother for once.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Ryder was frustrated beyond belief. His deadline was closing in fast and the new weapons still hadn’t been tested yet. He had been so caught up with trying to fight his runaway lab rat that he never realized the deadline had come up so fast. The scientist walked down to the main lab room, a large empty plane hangar that housed most of the equipment and the weapons. He checked over his notes and his calculations another time before walking in the room.

Everyone was still working, thankfully, but the deadline was in a week and nothing was ready for shipment yet. He growled and leaned up against the railing of the observation deck. Ryder needed to figure out a way to get the shipment order done faster before the client pulled out of their sponsoring. The scientist watched as the workers continued to weld and assemble the products. There weren’t going fast enough for such a big order and Ryder knew that this wasn’t going to go well.

“You seem to be having some problems there, Dr. van Druid. I hope my order will be done by next week.” Ryder jumped a bit as someone spoke behind him and placed a thin hand on his shoulder. The scientist turned around to see a thin man, a little taller than him in a silver and tan suit. The man had grey hair, but looked younger than an old man. His voice was scratchy and mocking, but Ryder knew who the man was.

“Yes, of course, Mr. Star.” the scientist answered back. “ARTEMIS is finalizing the weapons for your organization as we speak.”

“Good.” the man spoke back, looking over the hangar room as his shipment and his weapons being made. “I’ve heard you infiltrated the N.E.S.T. base as a scientist. I hope you are not thinking on backing out of our deal.”

“No, of course not.” Ryder answered again. “I am spying on a former colleague of mine. She is...trouble to say the least. I am afraid we might have a minor set back though.”

The tall man turned his head and eyed the young scientist with a glare. “What set back exactly?”

“One of our test subjects managed to escape a few days ago.” Dr. Ryder explained, taking a cautious step back. “I’m afraid he had come into the position of being watched by the Autobots and my colleague seems to be in charge of the event.”

The tall man’s grip tighten and started to bend the metal of the railing underneath his hand. He fully turned around and stare at the young man with an icy glare. “And who might this colleague be? I hope she isn’t a mate of yours.” the tall man replied deadly.

“Ex-girlfriend.” the scientist explained. “She seems to have taken interest in rehabilitating and redeeming Decepticons that have been either tortured or abandoned. Our test subject has recently taking an impression on her and asked for her to be both the Decepticon Barricade and its carrier.”

“What?!” the tall man screamed, seizing the mech by the throat and hold him in the air. “Are you to tell me that Dorothy Haven still lives?!”

“You know her?” the man managed to say before his air supply got cut off.

“She is the reason for my problems!” the man screamed, slamming the scientist against the wall. “And now she is mothering two Decepticons and friends with the Autobots?! Who is the other Decepticon?”

Ryder couldn’t answer, so the man had to drop him to the fall. The young scientist gasped for air before speaking again. “A...droid...named Frenzy…”

The man growled and walked towards the door in a fury. If Dorothy had Frenzy, then Soundwave and the rest of his little children would be against him as well. He needed to get rid of Frenzy, or at least capture him and make him submit. It shouldn’t be too hard since the little droid is young and still seems to be learning. Barricade was another problem, but that he would think about later.

“I will deal with reobtaining Frenzy for you.” the man said before opening the door. “Once my order is complete, your next job is to make sure Ms. Haven and Barricade do not get in the way of future projects.” Then the man walked out and slammed the door behind him.   
  
“Yes, Mr. Star.” Ryder answered and when back to watching the production. “The Decepticons will prevail.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frenzy is adorable and someone returns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Frenzy was scared again and not for a good reason.

The three of them were home again and Frenzy personally liked being in Dorothy’s house. The N.E.S.T. base was full of humans and Autobots and the little mech was still adjusting to being around them. He had only been comfortable around Barricade, Dorothy and Bumblebee, especially after he found out that Barricade and the Autobot scout were dating. He’d seen recently how the two mechs act around each other. He accidentally walking in on them making out once and Dorothy had to drag him out of the room afterwards. That’s how he found out.

But the three of them were home again. Dorothy was in the kitchen, making something in the kitchen making something with Barricade and Frenzy was sitting on the couch in the living room while watching TV. Barricade had decided to use his holo-avatar today and spend some time in the house. Frenzy wanted to try his as well, since he did have one and he had never used it before. The little mech turned out to look exactly what his age would be if he were human.

Frenzy had blonde, almost silver hair that was all poofy and fluffy on the top of his head. He had the same brown eyes that Barricade had and his skin was just as pale as his. The little mech looked like a six year old, which made some sort of sense with his broken English. His face was a little chubby and his nose was small and button-like. He was wearing a purple fox onesie, since the little mech didn’t have any clothes on when he activated his holo-avatar and that’s all that Dorothy had in her closest in sense of kid’s clothes. He had the hood up, so the silver-haired child had little purple fox ears and was chewing mindlessly on the fluffy tail that connected to the back of the onesie.

Dorothy peeked her head into the living room to see Frenzy watching the TV from the couch and smiled. She was so glad that onesie actually fit him, since she didn't have any other kids clothes and it looked so adorable on him. The woman walked over and leaned over the back of the couch to hug the little kid from behind. 

Frenzy giggled a bit and looked up at Dorothy. “Dorothy!” he yelled and held onto her arms so that she could pick him up. “Up!”

Dorothy sighed and lift the child off the couch, flipping him around so she could see his face. “Why hello there, Mr. Fox.” she stated, deciding to play off of the onesie.

Frenzy giggled again. “No. Frenzy.” he said, as he looked at Dorothy in confusion.

“What?” Dorothy asked while looking around the room. “I don't see Frenzy here. Only you, Mr. Fox.”

Frenzy's demeanor completely flipped on itself and he started to tear up. He pushed down his hood and patted at Dorothy’s chest. “No! Frenzy! Frenzy!” the little child exclaimed as he started to cry. He looked at her with a confused and upset expression. Did Dorothy not know who he was anymore? His mouth fell open and he started sobbing a bit with fear and sadness as he grabbed at Dorothy’s tank top and pulled it a little. He didn’t want Dorothy to forget him. She was his carrier and he needed his carrier to know who he was. 

Dorothy’s eyes widened and hugged Frenzy close to her chest. “Shush, Frenzy. I'm sorry. I was just messing with you.” she apologized frantically as Frenzy cried into her shoulder. “I knew you were there. I knew.”

Frenzy sniffled a bit and looked at Dorothy with puffy eyes. He had a little bit of snot dripping out of his nose, but he smothered his hands on his face to try and wiped it off. He calmed down some and pulled the tail up from behind him, holding onto it like it was a plush toy. “Frenzy sorry for crying. Frenzy scared Dorothy forgotten him.” Frenzy said, looking down at his fluffy tail.

Dorothy chuckled and shook her head. “No. I scared you and I should have done that. I love you, you know that right?”

“Yeah.” Frenzy answered back and giggled as he hugged Dorothy’s head. “Love you!”

Dorothy laughed and placed Frenzy back down on the couch. The silver-haired child didn’t want to let go of his new carrier and held onto her neck. Dorothy sighed and walked around the piece of furniture to sit with Frenzy on the couch. The child smiled and climbing into the woman’s lap, leaning back and snuggling into a comfortable position. The two of them sat there, watching TV and cuddling, until Barricade walked in and was completely covered in flour.

Dorothy looked over at Barricade and most choked on her breath as she tried to stifle a laugh. A small snorting noise escaped from her closed mouth, which directed Frenzy from the TV. The little child looked up at his friend and giggled a bit. “Barricade a ghost!” he exclaimed, earning a groan from the tan man standing behind the couch.

“No, I just don’t know how to bake without flour exploding everywhere.” Barricade answered back, wiping all the flour of his face and leaning on the back of the couch. “What’s Frenzy watching?”

Frenzy popped up from Dorothy’s lap and pointed back at the TV. “Pokémon!” he exclaimed again and his hoodie bounced as he did. “Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!”

Dorothy groaned at Frenzy’s tiny feet dug on and off of her legs, not liking the feeling. She grabbed the little boy around the waist and sat him back down on her lap, making him whine a bit. He made a pouty face up at the woman he now called his carrier and pulled the fox tail up over the bottom half of his face. Dorothy, of course, wasn’t being guilt-tripped into anything, so she looked at him sternly. “No bouncing on people, okay?”

Barricade quirked an eyebrow until he realized that Frenzy was jumping up and down on her. Frenzy nodded and looked back towards the TV, continuing to watch his show. He still kept the tail held out to his face and returned to chewing on it a bit. The silver-haired boy leaned back on the woman’s front and pulled his hood up again, making him look like a fox.

Dorothy sighed, wrapping her arms around the little child and securing him against her middle. She looked back up at Barricade and lifted an eyebrow. “What did you need?”

“I check the cabinets and after Frenzy ate all that powdered sugar earlier when we had it out, there’s none left.” Barricade explained, slightly cringing at the memory. Frenzy had gotten into a bag or powdered sugar on the counter and happened to eat some of the bag. And by some, he meant all of it. The little boy was running around the house like a mad man and Dorothy and Barricade spent about ten minutes trying to calm him down from his sugar rush. Frenzy ended up conking out after that and woke up on a couch. 

“Trip to the grocery story then?” Dorothy asked him and the young adult nodded. The woman looked down at Frenzy and sighed. The little Decepticon was still very hyper and tired at the same time. Even if the boy when back to his cybertronian body, he would probably fall into recharge the second they walked into the store and she definitely wasn’t holding him the entire time, or leaving him in Barricade unsupervised. “Maybe after we put him down for a nap.”

“Alright. I’ll meet you in the garage then.” Barricade nodded and walked back into the kitchen, wiping his hands all over his jeans and his shirt to try and get all the flour off.

Dorothy sighed and looked down at the small child in her lap. Frenzy was smiling happily at the show and bouncing a bit on Dorothy’s lap. The woman found the remote next to him and turned off the television, earning a whine from the little boy in the purple fox onesie. Frenzy looked up at her and tried to grab for the remote, only for Dorothy to hold it away from him. “Nap time, bud.”

“Noooo!” the little boy whined. “No nap. Not tired.” A few seconds later, the little boy’s eyes drooped and he rubbed them, yawning.

“I think you are tired.” Dorothy commented, smirking at the silver-haired boy and picked him up in his arms. She placed an arm under his legs and let his head rest on her shoulder. The woman walked out of the living room and up the stairs to her own room, being that’s where Frenzy slept most of the time. She opened the door with her free hand and walked into the room. “Nap time.” she repeated.

Frenzy was laid down on his back on top of the little bed of pillows Dorothy had in the corner of her bed. He flipped over and pawed at the pillows for a bit, yawning and stretching out. His eyes were droopy and he almost fell over when he tried to reposition himself. The little boy laid down on the pillows and curled up, the fluffy fox tail pulled in between his legs and hugged. His hood slipped off a bit and his curly fluffy hair poked out a bit. He yawned again, making a little squeaking noise and closed his eyes. “Goodnite.” he said to Dorothy as he grew even more tired.

“Sleep well, Frenzy.” the short woman answered back and kissed the little boy on the forehead. She grabbed one of the blankets and pulled it over the sleepy child before leaving the room. 

Frenzy smiled, and fell into recharge, dreaming about Pokémon and foxes. He dreamed about being a fox and running around in the wild and in the forest with other foxes. The little mech was happy and played in his dream with all the other foxes and wild animals. Dorothy and Barricade were there playing with him and having fun. Barricade was a fox as well, black and white and larger than him. Dorothy was a wolf with a dark brown coat, watching them from afar and making sure they were safe.

The little Decepticon was having a great dream and slept for a few hours in Dorothy’s room...until the sound of something crashing came from downstairs. Frenzy shot up and stared wide-eyed at the door. It was closed, but he could still hear movement. The little boy hugged the blanket that was placed over him, along with the tail he was holding before. He got off of the bed and moved to the door, reaching up to grab the doorknob and open it. The door swung open and the little mech ventured out into the empty house. 

“Hello?” Frenzy called out at the top of the stairs and didn’t hear a reply. He hopped down the stairs and started around the house calling for his friend and his carrier. “Dorothy? Barricade? Where are you?”

The little boy walked into every room of the house and couldn’t find a single sign the someone was in the house. Finally, Frenzy went into the garage and saw that Barricade was gone. The little boy rapidly began to get very nervous. Dorothy must have gone out with Barricade to shop of something, and Dorothy’s older brother wasn’t in the house since he was at work. Frenzy looked back at the house and thought he saw something move. He whimpered a bit and walked back into the house.

Frenzy walked back into the living room and looked around, walking over to climb up onto the couch. He looked at the coffee table and noticed the CD player wasn’t there either. Did Dorothy move his cybertronian form somewhere? He was going to get up and looked for it when he heard a footstep behind him. The little boy froze and turned around, looking from the stairs all the the way to the hallway that lead into the kitchen. No one was there and the silver-haired boy hugged the tail and his blanket tighter. He sat back down and his eyes frantically started to wander around the room.

Someone suddenly grabbed him from behind and pulled him off of the couch, clamping a hand over his mouth so he couldn’t scream. Frenzy started to fail and try to get the person off of him, successfully kicking the person in the chest and pushed himself away. The little boy pushed himself away and looked up at the person in fear. He hid behind his tail and his blanket as the person moved forward more. 

It was a woman, but not Dorothy. She had long brown hair and a pair of sunglasses on. He was also wearing some kind of racing suit and had a gun belt strapped around her waist. She looked disgusted by the little kid, probably because she was just kicked in the chest, and glared at him. “Come here, little kid.” she called. “Someone wants to meet you.”

“No!” Frenzy screamed at her and glared. He hugged the fluffy tail tighter. “You not carrier!”

The woman walked closer, making Frenzy push himself up against the wall. “I don’t care if I’m your ‘carrier’ or not! You’re coming with me!”

“NO!” Frenzy screamed louder and made a run for it. He ducked under the woman’s arms and made a run for the stairs. If he could get to Dorothy’s room and lock the door, he’s be safe until Dorothy and Barricade got back from their shopping trip. He made it to the stairs, having to get down on all fours to run faster up the stairs, but someone caught him by his foot. The silver-haired boy’s face slammed against the wooden stairs and starts to cry out of pain.

“Got you, you little rat!” the woman seethed, pulling the little Decepticon back towards her and securing him under her on the floor. His face was bruised and tears fell freely from his eyes. She took a small chip out of her pocket and held it up. Frenzy gasped, knowing what the device did and tried to move himself away from the lady. He kicked and twisted as he struggled under her. The woman growled at him. “Stop moving, kid!”

Frenzy managed to get his hand free and punch the lady in the face. She reeled back and the little boy was able to escape for a moment. He ran up the stairs and stopped at the top to look back down at the woman. She was smiling and was holding up a remote in her hand. Frenzy froze and reached around to the back of his neck to feel the small chip there. The little boy ran as fast as he could and tried to make it to Dorothy’s room.

Unfortunately, a small sharp pain resonated in the back of the little Decepticon’s neck and Frenzy grew fearful. Everything began to grow blurry and painful as he pushed open the door to Dorothy’s room and collapsed on the ground. He was still crying, but he pushed himself up as he looked for a place to hide. He crawled under the bed and hid himself under his blanket. He tucked his hood and tail in under with him and cried silently.

He heard footsteps, but they were soon blurred out as the chip on the back of his neck made another surge of pain ripple through him. He began to shake and tremble, feeling nothing else but pain and someone grabbing him.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Frenzy woke up when he felt someone else holding him protectively.

The little mech had been in so much pain that he passed out, but was still shaking. His tail was still pressed up to his face and the blanket he had been hiding under was wrapped around him. Everything was too loud and too bright for him, making him whine and whimper slightly. He felt someone’s body up against his side and snuggled into it, feeling somewhat safer. 

“Frenzy? You awake there, bud?”

Frenzy’s eyes finally peeked open and he saw Barricade in his holo-avatar above him. He yawned painfully and sat up a bit. He looked around, not knowing where he was and hugged into Barricade’s middle. He was still in pain from what that chip did to him. He looked up at his friend and whimpered more. “W-Where D-Dorothy?” he asked, starting to cry again.

“She’ll be right back.” Barricade replied, stroking the little boy’s head and running his fingers through his silver hair. “She’s just briefing some people.”

Frenzy nodded and decided to look around the room he was in. It was a lobby of a police station. Some people were random people, but some were officers and criminals. There was a lot of noise coming from the back rooms and a side door off to the left. There was probably a meeting going on in there. The little mech hiccuped a bit and nuzzled his face on Barricade’s stomach. “Want D-Dorothy.”

“I know. She’s coming back.” the black-haired man answered back and continuing to try and comfort the little boy. Frenzy nodded and silently watched as people passed and went places. He held the fox tail connected to his onesie up to his face and cuddled with it as he waited. That lady from before wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He didn’t even know how he ended up in a police station, but knew Barricade would keep him safe.

Suddenly, he perked up at the sound of a familiar voice giving orders to people. His teary eyes looked over towards the door and saw Dorothy emerge with a medical bandage over her face and talking to two other officers. He looked mad and was wearing her police uniform. The two men saluted off and Dorothy sighed with exhaustion. Frenzy smiled and reached out for the woman as she turned around.

Dorothy looked towards the boys and saw that Frenzy was awake. The short woman rushed over and took Frenzy up into her arms. The little boy giggled with joy and hugged the woman tightly, not wanting her to let go. He nuzzled his face into Dorothy’s hair and began to sob. The officer smiled and kissed his forehead, causing him to look up. “Hey, Frenzy. It’s okay, you’re safe now.”

“C-Carrier.” Frenzy sobbed and nudged himself onto her shoulder. “S-Scared.”

“I know you are.” Dorothy replied and stroked the child’s hair, playing with it and rubbing his back. “But you’re safe now. I’ve got you.”

“W-What h-happen?” the little boy asked, looking up at the woman. He didn’t remember much, so he couldn’t tell anyone what happened. He was in pain and that’s was it.

“You were kidnapped by someone, but Barricade and I came home right as they were living.” Dorothy started to explain. “I fought them and had them arrested. Barricade got you out of their truck and took that little chip off of your neck. He told me that it makes cybertronians have immense pain, so that’s why you were crying and shaking so much. I was so scared that they really hurt you, so Barricade took care of you while I drove the kidnapper to the police station. I told Barricade to bring you later.”

Barricade stood up and joined into the hug, smushing the little Decepticon between them. Frenzy giggled and looked behind Dorothy to see the woman standing there against the wall in handcuffs. She was glaring at him and Frenzy shrunk down on himself. The little boy hugged his carrier and his friend as they stood in the middle of the police station. “Should have never left you alone for so long.” Dorothy commented.

“You couldn’t never known that Mayrin would do something like this.” Barricade answered back.

“She sexually harassed you in a grocery store and I personally hated her, so I don’t know about that.” Dorothy answered back. She held the little boy in her arms and smiled, booping his nose to get him to smile as well. 

Frenzy giggled and hugged the woman. “Frenzy want to go home.”

“Okay, we can go home now.” Dorothy answered and began to walk out to Barricade’s alt mode, which was in the parking lot. “Are you okay, Frenzy?”   


“Yeah. I’m okay now that you’re here! You’re the best carrier! I love you!” Frenzy spoke and Dorothy froze mid-step. Frenzy had just spoke in full sentences and he didn’t even notice it. “Dorothy?”

“I love you, too, bud.” Dorothy answered and continued walking. Frenzy pulled up his hood and decided to take another nap on Dorothy’s shoulder as he closed his eyes and fell asleep instantly. “Let’s just get home so Barricade can go kiss his boyfriend.”  
  
“HEY!” Barricade yelled and Dorothy laughed. She knew it was true.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quality time with Barricade and Bee!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

:: _ You know you don’t have to comm out of town just to say hello and kiss me. _ ::

Barricade chuckled and pulled Bee into his chassis, cuddling with the little scout and relaxing. “But that’s the point of having a secret boyfriend, Bee. Haven’t you watched any human chick flicks before?” The police car heard the mech gasp in offense.

:: _ I’m not some teenage human girl, Barricade. _ :: the Autobot scout protested, huffing and crossing his arms over his chestplates. :: _ I watch chase movies, action films, superhero movies, and- _ ::

“Romantic movies where there’s a lot of sexual tension?” Barricade finished his lover’s sentence, earning a small jab to his side.

:: _ Barricade, shut up! I do not! _ :: Bee whined and turned around, his doorwings smacking Barricade in the face and making the police car flinch a bit. :: _ I’m not a femme! _ ::

“You act like one with all this whining you’re doing.” Barricade commented and Bumblebee kicked him in the side. Barricade yelped and stared at the back of the mech’s helm, moving in closer to place his mouth up against the back of the mech’s neck cables.

Bumblebee flinched and flicked his doorwings in annoyance. :: _ Barricade, what are you doing? _ ::

Barricade only chuckled and licked the neck cables, making Bee squeak and pushed the mech away. Barricade started laughing and looked over at the pissed youngling as Bee tried to wipe the oral fluids off of the back of his helm. The yellow and black mech glared at his boyfriend and huffed, choosing not to face him again. The police car sighed and scooted up behind the youngling, kissing the back of his helm. 

“Sorry, princess.” the older mech commented and rested his helm on top of his boyfriend’s. “I thought it would be funny.”

:: _ Well it wasn’t! _ :: Bee protested and crossed his arms over his chassis. He sighed and leaned back into Barricade’s frame, enjoying the heat and the protective feeling. :: _ And don’t call me princess. I’m not a femme. _ ::

“Whatever you say...princess.” Barricade smirked as the youngling under his helm groaned. He wrapped his arms around the Autobot and leaned back, pulling the mech back with him. The scout yelped, but soon joined into Barricade’s laughing fit. He went back to cuddling on the ground and looking up at the sky. “Just enjoy the stars, Bee.”

The two lovers were outside of Tranquility, stargazing and spending some quality time with each other. The Frenzy things happened a couple of weeks ago, which meant the little mech was okay and at home right now. Dorothy had made a new work schedule, since they were going her more days off and the F1 team more days on. She was able to be home to take care of Frenzy and it gave the police car time to speed off to California to see his beloved for a while. Dorothy didn’t mind, since she was the one who helped them get together and Frenzy himself seemed to like the idea of Barricade dating someone. So, he was pretty much set for the rest of his life. 

:: _ Anything exciting happen at home with the family yet? _ :: Bumblebee asked, generally curious about the police car’s life.

“Frenzy got kidnapped a few weeks ago.” Barricade informed the scout. “Dorothy and I were at the store and someone broke into the house.”

Bumblebee looked up at his boyfriend with concern. :: _ Is he okay? Do you know who it was? I mean, I saw Frenzy last week when he came to base, so you got him back. _ ::

Barricade looked down at the youngling’s face and smiled, kissing the top of the mech’s helm. “Yeah, he’s okay.” the police car answered back. “Dorothy and I got back just as the kidnapper was living. Dorothy ended up getting in a fight with them and I had to take Frenzy inside. He had some chip on the back of his neck causing him pain and I took it off. He was unconscious, but he seemed better. Dorothy went to the police station with the guy and told me to stay at home with Frenzy. I did and she called me later to bring him in.”

:: _ You still didn’t tell me who the kidnapper was. _ :: the yellow and black Autobot commented, snuggling further into the mech’s side as some more stars appeared. :: _ I want to know who I need to scared the scrap out of. _ ::

Barricade laughed as Bee pounded his fist into his other servo and glared menacingly. It was adorable, to Barricade, and the police car just hugged his boyfriend tighter. “Mayrin Walker. She was the captain of the F1 team for the Phoenix police. She ended up harassing me in a store once and she was really snobby. She almost seemed like a female human version of Starscream. The crazy glitch had a gun and shot Dorothy in the face.”

Bee sat up abruptly. :: _ Oh my Primus! Is she okay?! _ :: The younger mech started to fret as he looked down at the police car for an answer. Bee, too, treated Dorothy as kinda a family member now. All of the Autobots did. She had really helped with getting some of the N.E.S.T. troops in order and help them train better. It was kinda hard to imagine the woman getting hurt somehow. 

“Yeah, she’s fine.” Barricade commented, sitting up as well. “The bullet skimmed her cheek. It’s was just a cut. Dorothy wasn’t freaking out of anything, but Frenzy started to panic when we all got home that night. Speaking of which, Frenzy has gotten more clingy as of late.”

:: _ Maybe he’s afraid someone is going to try and kidnap him again. _ :: Bumblebee commented and leaned back onto his chest, letting the police car wrap his arms around him back.

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t be worried about anything.” the police car commented, tilting up the mech’s helm to look at him. “Right now, it’s just you and me.”

Bee blushed a bit and quirked a brow at the mech. :: _ What are you planning for the evening, Mr. Police Car? _ ::

“You don’t have to be that formal, Bee.” the ex-con stated as he pulled the Autobot around and under him. “Just some kissing, maybe a little more if we get carried away~”

Bumblebee blushed and let his vocoder slide out of the way. He leaned up and kissed his lover on the lipplates as the mech over him leaned down to kiss back. The two intertwined as the kissing continued for a few minutes. Barricade remained dominant for most of the time, only letting the youngling pinch and rub some plating while the police car rubbed the Camaro’s doorwings and made him squirm. 

Someone’s comm rang and Barricade pulled off the youngling. Bumblebee was panting and shaking under him from the amount of anticipation. He looked up at the mech, questioning why he stopped and noticed that someone was pinging him from base. Bee sat up and slid his vocoder back over his mouth. Barricade grunted as he realized that his make-out session was ruined by Prime or Ironhide.

Bee sat listening and his optics widen. He nodded and sighed off the call. :: _ They need us both at base. Something to do with that Ryder-guy going missing and the Decepticons. _ ::

Barricade huffed and glared at the youngling. “And why should I care? I’m not getting myself into any more business with the Decepticons or Ryder. An enemy of Dorothy is an enemy of mine.”

:: _ But Optimus said something about finding files on you and Frenzy. _ :: Bee answered, sounding nervous that he said that. :: _ I really think you should come to base. Optimus said that once we figure out what the problem is, then we can bring Dorothy into it. _ ::

“This has something to do with Mayrin and Frenzy getting kidnapped.” Barricade answered randomly and Bee looked at him strange. “Ryder is apparently missing, the Decepticon are suddenly popping back up after a month, and Frenzy was almost kidnapped. They’re all connected, I can feel it.”

:: _ Maybe you’ll find out on the way to base. _ :: the scout said back, trying to agree with his boyfriend and nuzzling him on the side of the helm. :: _ Let’s go, before Ironhide comes looking for us. _ ::

Barricade groaned and kissed the mech once more before transforming and speeding off after his lover. The thoughts in his helm were rushing as he tried to think of a connection. Ryder used to work for Sector Seven, the Decepticons don’t like humans, and Mayrin never seemed like the kinda human to try and kidnap someone. Unless she was hired to do so. Barricade thought about it more and realized that Ryder was always looking at Frenzy when the little mech was at base. Frenzy, in return, was always scared of him and clung to Dorothy as if she was some kind of safe place. 

Then something clicked in his helm and he realized that the next time he saw Ryder, he was going to kill that man. 

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Dorothy had noticed a few things about Frenzy in the weeks after the kidnapping that seemed a little out of character for the little mech.

Frenzy was suddenly a lot more clingy, which was understandable, but he always seemed like he was doing it for safety. The little mech, whether in his holo-avatar or in his regular cybertronian form, seemed to never want to leave Dorothy’s side when anywhere, even in the house. The little Decepticon would sit with her on the couch when she was reading something. He would come into work now as his CD player form and sit on her desk when she was in there. Even helping her with chores around the house was a little odder than usual for him. 

But today, something was definitely wrong. Frenzy was in his holo-avatar today again, so he was also in his purple fox onesie again. Dorothy hasn’t had any time to go and get some new clothes for the little Decepticon, but she washed his onesie, so it was fine. He seemed to enjoy it and liked to hold the fluffy tail while he was watching TV. Dorothy thought he was utterly adorable in it, but Frenzy would get all huffy about it if she said anything out loud.

Barricade was out with Bumblebee tonight, so it was just them and Darren in the house. Darren was already asleep and Dorothy was cleaning up the kitchen and washing the dishes, with the help of Frenzy of course. The silver-haired boy would stand on a step stool and watch as Dorothy would wash the dishes, focusing on how each one was washed. The woman would pass of a plate, cup, or silverware to the little boy and he was dry them off. Dorothy didn’t let him touch the knives, but everything else was nice and dry for her to put away.

Frenzy was now sitting on the counter as Dorothy placed all the dishes and utensils away in the cabinets and drawers. The little Decepticon yawned a bit and played with his tail, brushing the fur and hugging it against his chest. He was exhausted from today, since he went to butterfly museum that they had in Scottsdale. One of the butterflies landed on his face and wouldn’t get off, causing Dorothy to laugh a bit. She got a picture of it and Frenzy didn’t like it. 

Dorothy finished putting everything away and looked to see a very tired little boy behind her, lazily petting the fluffy tail of his onesie. The woman chuckled and walked over, tapping him on the head. The little boy looked up and smiled sleepily. “Dorothy!” he exclaimed and reached his arms up to be lifted up into the woman’s arms. 

Dorothy obliged and picked up the little boy. Frenzy giggled a bit and nuzzled into the woman’s chest, yawning again and wrapping his arms around her neck. “Someone’s tired.” she commented as she carried the mech out of the room. 

“I’m not tired!” Frenzy yelled and crossed his arms over his chest as he pouted. Dorothy chuckled and shook her head. She carried Frenzy in the living room and turned on the TV for him, which was coincidentally playing a Pokémon episode. Frenzy’s face brighten and he bounced a bit in Dorothy’s arms from excitement. The woman sat down on the couch and let the silver-haired boy sit on her lap and watch the show. “Gotta catch ‘em all~!” he almost sang.

Dorothy chuckled and grabbed her Harry Potter book from the coffee table. “Who’s your favorite, Frenzy? I like Charizard personally.”

“PIKACHU!” Frenzy almost screamed at the top of his lungs and giggled. Dorothy cringed at the sound. The boy’s voice was high-pitched and squeaky and very close to her face. The little boy stopped bouncing and went back to watching the TV. Dorothy sighed and hoped Darren didn’t hear that. The little Decepticon seemed to like it when Team Rocket come on screen during an episode. He said that it reminded him of him and his twin, Rumble. Dorothy smiled and told him back at she would like to meet his siblings one day.

Three episodes played back to back as Dorothy finally finished ten chapters in her book. Frenzy had passed out at some point during the last episode and had his tail in his mouth. Dorothy lifted it out, but didn’t take it out of his grasp. The little mech whined a bit, but went back to sleep. The woman sighed and placed her book down on the couch. She lifted Frenzy back into her arms and pulled down his hood so she could see his face. The little mech was peaceful and smiled a bit in his sleep.

The two of them travelled up the stairs and to Dorothy’s room. She had done this rountie a bunch of times so it was almost normal. The little boy was placed into the nest of pillows at the top of the bed and tucked in. His chest rose and fell steadily as he slept into the night while Dorothy stayed up to do reports. The police work was killing her now ever since she arrested Mayrin. The snobby woman seemed to always make her life harder. A few hours later, Dorothy was finally tired and decided to go to bed. She hopped out of bed and when to take a shower. She took her pajamas with her and when into the bathroom down the hall. 

Frenzy woke up sometime when she was in the shower, whimpering a bit. The little Decepticon was in pain, his head feeling fuzzy and achy and the rest of his body felt like it was melting. He curled up on the pillow under him and started crying silently. It hurt too much to cry out loud so he silently waited for someone to notice he was in pain. He hugged his blanket and his fluffy tail as he started to call out for his carrier. “Dorothy! Dorothy!”

Dorothy came out of the bathroom with her pajamas on and walked back to her room. The woman had felt her stomach drop when she was in the shower, like something bad was going to happen. She entered her room and saw Frenzy breathing irregularly on his pillow bed. He was facing the opposite direction and Dorothy couldn’t see he face. The woman heard the little mech calling his name and she walked around the bed.

“Frenzy? What’s wrong?” she asked, kneeling down next to the bedside. She pressed a hand to the side of Frenzy’s cheek and it was hotter than usual. Was he sick? The little child just looked at her with pain and moved his arms slowly to grab out for her. His hands made the grappy motion and he cried silently for the woman to hug him. 

“H-Hurts everywhere.” Frenzy croaked, his voice very hoarse and strained. “N-Need c-carrier.”

Dorothy took the little boy into her arms and sat up on the bed, cradling him against her chest. The little boy continued to cry into her pajama shirt and whimper in pain. The woman didn’t know what was wrong, being that she only left for ten minutes. She finally decided to take him downstairs and see if something was wrong in medical standards. Dorothy carried Frenzy with her and went downstairs and into the kitchen to get some things. 

Ratchet had told her that cybertronians get sicknesses just like humans do, but they’re different. Since Frenzy was in his holo-avatar, it would be easier for Dorothy to spot symptoms and see if something was infecting him. She quickly pulled out a thermometer from one of the kitchen drawers and grabbed a towel from the towel rack. “Frenzy, I know you’re hurting, but I need you to open your mouth for me.” she calmly asked and had the thermometer in hand.

The little boy nodded slowly and opened his mouth. He whimpered at how much it hurt, but kept it open for the woman. Dorothy placed the thermometer in the Decepticon’s mouth and help to close it. She placed the towel under some cold water and folded it open. The woman placed it on Frenzy’s forehead and the little boy seemed to relax a bit. She took the little child to the couch and sat with him as she took out her phone to call Ratchet. 

While the phone was ringing, she took the thermometer out of Frenzy’s mouth and read it. His temperature was 104.3, which nearly freaked her out. If he was a human, she would need to take him to the hospital right now. She now knew why the little kid was in so much pain and crying so much. The phone was finally answered and Dorothy listened to her Ratchet say hello.

“Hey, Ratchet.” Dorothy answered back worryingly. Frenzy was clinging to her shirt and shivering now. He was crying louder than before and snuggling in closer. “We have a problem.”

.:You’re telling me.:. the medic answered from the other side of the line. .:We’re having a Decepticon problem.:.

“Me too. Frenzy is in his holo-avatar and he has a 104 fever.” she answered, going strictly into mother-mode. “Should that be concerning?”

.:Is he showing any other signs of being sick?:. the medic asked as he seemed to be calmer than Dorothy was at the moment.

“He’s crying and whimpering up against me right now.” she answered back as the woman moved her hand to start rubbing the little Decepticon’s back. Frenzy seemed to relax more after that, but still was in pain. “I put a cold compress on his forehead and I’m trying to soothe him the best I can. You have anything for that?”

.:I would need you to bring him in for an evaluation, but Barricade is here with Bee right now.:. Ratchet replied. 

“It’s okay. I’ll take my brother’s car.” Dorothy replied and looked down at Frenzy. She smiled and kissed his forehead. “I’ll call you when I’m leaving.”

Dorothy hung up and spent a few minutes sitting with Frenzy. The little mec had cried himself out, but was still conscious and whimpering. He was grabbing at her pajama shirt and nuzzling his face into her shirt. “It h-hurts r-really b-bad, c-carrier.” the little Decepticon whimpered and cried a bit.

“I know and you’re being really brave right now.” Dorothy answered back and inspecting over the little boy one more time. Something caught her eye and she focused on it. A purple vein was sticking out from the side of Frenzy’s neck and trailed around to the back of his neck. She turned the little mech around in her lap and followed the vein, slipping into a small shock as she saw the cluster of veins that spread out across the little boy’s neck and down beyond the collar of his hoodie. She picked up Frenzy and rushed to the front door, slipping on some sandals and grabbing her brother’s car keys. 

Someone had poisoned Frenzy and the little child was suffering badly. The veins were in the same spot as where that chip was a couple of weeks ago and she swore she was going to punch Mayrin when she got back home with Frenzy.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soundwave wants to know where Frenzy is and doesn't really get a good answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Ravage felt something was off about the last couple of days and knew it had something to do with the fact that he hadn’t seen Frenzy at all since him and Soundwave had joined the Decepticons on Earth.

It was an odd feeling, one in his spark, that he knew something was wrong. The cyber-panther just couldn’t place it and decided to finally confront Soundwave about it. The rest of his siblings didn’t seemed to notice the feeling yet, except for Rumble who was constantly worrying about his twin’s location and what had happened to him, but sure enough they would soon. Ravage was the oldest of Soundwave’s spies, which made him the most responsible for watching over them all. Every since Megatron had ordered Frenzy to go with Barricade to Earth, him and Soundwave had been fretting that something might happen to him.

Hopefully, that won’t be the case and Ravage was just being paranoid. The oldest spy walked around the current base of the Decepticons, which was stuck underground in a large cavern that blocked off all human surveillance from reaching them. The black panther stalked around the many tunnels and hallways until he came upon the meeting room, where Soundwave was in a meeting with Starscream and Hook. As much as Ravage despised that Seeker, he did know how to pick a good hiding place. 

The black panther carefully snuck into the room, using one of the tunnels in the ceiling and sitting on a ledge that hung over the room. Hook and Starscream were in another fight, which wasn’t uncommon, and Soundwave was silently sitting off to the side as he waited for the two to finish their dispute. Ravage opened up their spark bond and began a conversation.  _ “Soundwave.” _

The silver mech looked up towards where the cyber-cat was sitting, tail swishing behind and waiting for its sire to reply.  _ “Yes, Ravage? Is there something wrong?” _

_ “Have you seen Frenzy at all in base?” _ Ravage questioned as that feeling of worry rose again in his spark.  _ “I haven’t seen Barricade at all during are days here, which means that Frenzy might not be here either. Can you feel him through the bond?” _

Soundwave thought for a moment and tried what the young panther had mentioned. He searched for the other end of the bond to one of his youngest, but strangely couldn’t feel it. The communications officer froze for a moment and tried again. He searched through each of his bonds, feeling everyone of his children except for Frenzy. It was fuzzy and muted, as if he was damaged in some way. Soundwave was surprised he hadn’t felt it until now. 

_ “I cannot feel it.” _ Soundwave answered back, sounding almost frightened.  _ “Have you talked to your siblings about this? Do they suspect anything is wrong?” _

_ “Rumble has shown some concern over Frenzy not being around, but the condors and Ratbat have not show any signs.” _ Ravage answered and looked towards Starscream. Wouldn’t he have information on where Barricade and Frenzy were.  _ “Try Starscream.” _

_ “He would not tell me. That is my biggest concern.” _ Soundwave replied, knowing that Starscream would want something over him.  _ “Please go and try to comfort the others about this. I do not need anyone running off in the middle of the night trying to find him. The humans seem to be good at tracking us now.” _

Ravage got up from his spot and crawled back into the tunnel that lead out to the rest of the base. Soundwave closed off the bond communication as he looked back at Starscream, who was still quarreling with Hook about some medical problem. Starscream seemed to end it and resume talking about further plans. Hook, on the other servo, just stared at Soundwave, watching his face. Although his red optics were still and controlled as he watched Starscream, Hook could see the concern laced in the rest of his features. 

“Soundwave, you okay?” Hook asked the now SIC, catching Starscream’s attention off of whatever rant he was about to stare. “You look a little more concerned than usual.”

“Let me guess.” Starscream mused to himself. “You miss Lord Megatron already? I know how loyal you were, but you’re going to have to face the facts and realized that he’s gone and I, as the SIC, am proclaim to take his place.”

“That was not my concern.” Soundwave answered, standing up from his seat. “Where have you seen Frenzy last?”

Hook looked a little confused, since he hadn’t seen the little bugger either. Usually the twins of doom were usually tearing apart his med bay, or what you could call a med bay since he didn’t have all the equipment he needed, but he had only seen Rumble moping around the tunnels. Starscream though physically flinched and started to internally panic. The Seeker knew exactly where and what had happened to Frenzy. He also knew that if Soundwave found out what had happened, he would be dead in less than a second. 

“Why...why do you ask?” Starscream asked back, trying to diverge the communications officer from asking more questions about it. “Isn’t...Isn’t he with his twin pranking someone in the base or something?”

Soundwave knew Starscream knew where Frenzy was just by how he hesitated. He was trying to lie to the mech and it wasn’t going to work. Especially when it concerned his creations. Soundwave was starting to get agitated at the mech. “Where is Frenzy?”

“I’m sure Barricade just...just went out on a drive or something and took Frenzy with him.” Starscream lied against slowly moving closer and closer to the tunnel that lead out of the current room they were in. 

“But I thought-hmph!” Hook tried to say, but was quickly silenced by Starscream slapping his servo over his mouth. Starscream glared at the Constructicon and finally removed his servo when Hook had acknowledged what the Seeker was thinking. “I mean...I’m sure Frenzy’s um fine.”

“Where is Frenzy? Where is my creation?” Soundwave asked again, now sounding more aggravated with the Seeker and the Decepticon medic.

Starscream and Hook glanced at each other and the Seeker made a run for it. The communications officer growled and glared at the other mech, watching as the medic held his servos up in surrender. He wasn’t dealing with this scrap today and reminded himself to open up his med bay for Starscream later. The Construction walked off in the opposite direction and kept his servos up as he walked. 

Soundwave sent on of his data-collecting tendrils after Starscream and watched as it wrapped around the Seeker’s neck cables and tugged him back. The silver jet started struggling with it, but ended up being yanked back into the meeting room with a very pissed Soundwave. A few more tendrils restrained Starscream from moving, gripping around limbs and his wings as the communications officer pulled his up off the ground and in front of his face. 

“Where. Is. Frenzy?” Soundwave growled out, tightening the tendrils around Starscream’s neck cables and heard the Seeker start to choke. “And do not lie to me again!”

“Soundwave…please!” the silver jet started to beg, but got none from the angered mech holding him hostage in his tendrils. “I had nothing...to do with Frenzy!"

“You lie!” Soundwave roared, letting his tendrils slam the Seeker into the nearest wall and holding him there.

“It...it was humans!” Starscream pleaded with him and started to choke again as the tendril squeezed his neck cables tightly again. “They...they took...him to the...Autobots! He’s...a prisoner of...Prime!”

Soundwave’s tendrils loosened, allowing the mech to breath again and gasp in some air for his vents to circulate. The communications officer looked somewhat offended by the statement. Frenzy was captured by the Autobots? It was a likely story, but the now SIC still believed the Seeker was lying. Frenzy’s bond wouldn’t be muted and fuzzy if he was with the Autobots, knowing that the Autobots would never hurt a cybertronian that young.

Unless...unless the humans did something that the Autobots weren’t able to fix. Soundwave tugged the Seeker closer again and got up in his face. “What do you mean humans? What happened to my creation?!”

“Barricade, as unfortunate as it is, is sadly not with us anymore because of humans.” Starscream explained, trying to build a lie that the communications officer would believe. “The mech was attacked by the human organization called N.E.S.T. and Frenzy happened to be with him. They took Frenzy into custody, last I had heard from one of my trinemates, and we have not heard from him since. It has been three months since any confrontations with him.”

Soundwave released the Seeker onto the floor and stepped back. He couldn’t handle all that information at once. He called out to Frenzy’s bond again, but didn’t get a reply or a happy feeling from it. The young creation’s bond seemed to be calling out for his sire and for his siblings, but didn’t have enough strong to recieve or reach out far enough. Fear filled the mech’s spark as he realized that something was hurting his creation.

Starscream slowly got up from the floor and watched the communications officer with somewhat feeling of delight. The mech left the room and walked back further into the base, probably to find his creations. The Seeker grinned to himself and opened up a comm line as the phone number of his HUD was being dialed. He waited for a few seconds and heard someone pick up from the other side. 

“Mr. Star?” the voice answered, sounding questionable. “What seems to be the matter? Have you recaptured the little vermin yet?”

“No, we are still working on that.” Starscream answered back and chuckled to himself. “But I do have an opposition for you. We have recently come into a situation where a certain mech in his creations have become a slight problem to our cause. How fast can you get one of your teams around for a hunt?”

“We’ll be ready when you are, sir.” the man answered back. “How many cybertronians are we to capture?”

“I will set up a destination for you to be at.” the silver jet explained. “Plan to capture five small creations and one cybertronian. He will be a tough fight and his creations will try to protect them. Try to capture the little ones first before getting the big guy. He’s fall when his creations get hurt.”

“Yes, sir.” the man answered, then hung up.

Starscream sat down in his chair as he smiled to himself. The next couple of days were going to be very amusing to watch. Soundwave and his little buggers would be out of his plating, his plans for destroy the Autobots could continue and he would have the entire Decepticon army behind him with no one to object. Today was a good day, a very good day indeed.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Soundwave entered his hab suite inside the Decepticon base and closed the door behind him. He wasn’t okay. He let his bond fold up and five voices all bombarded him at once with worry and concern in their voices. A metallic bat shot from the other room and landed on the communications officer’s helm, wrapping his wings around the mech’s horns. Two condors followed after, perching themselves on the little lip of the ceiling. The large cybertronian panther followed into the room and sat before Soundwave as a small mech-like creation walked in as well.

“Where Frenzy?” the bat asked, blinking cluelessly at his sire. “Sire okay?”

Soundwave did not answer his youngest, but walked forward wordlessly and sat on the edge of the berth that was further in. He sat down and put his helm in his servos, sighing deeply as he did not feel up to talking about it. Rumble seemed to be the only one who could relate, being that him and Frenzy came from the same spark slipt and they were the closest. Ravage walked forward and jumped up onto the berth, rubbing up against Soundwave to give him some comfort.

“What did Starscream say?” the panther asked him, tilting his helm as he asked. “Something is upsetting you.”

Rumble peered around the corner of the berth and walked over to tap his sire on the pede. Soundwave looked up from his servos and down at the lone twin. The little mech looked helpless and alone, since he was always constantly with his twin. Rumble had been so excited to see his twin again after so many years of being apart and his spirit had been crushed when Frenzy was nowhere to be found. 

Soundwave sighed. “Starscream has informed me that Frenzy has been captured by the human organization that helps the Autobots. Barricade was...attacked and Frenzy was with him.”

Everyone was silent for a moment before the five creations climbed or flew down onto the berth to cuddle with their creator. Rumble sat in his sire’s lap and started to cry, nuzzling into his creator’s sevro. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw landed of the mech’s shoulders and wrapped their wings around his, creating a hug and a warm feeling around the officer. Ratbat didn’t really understand what that meant, but he hugged his sire’s helm tighter because the bond between them grew sad. Ravage curled up next to his creator and sighed, knowing how upsetting it was to lose Frenzy.

The panther thought for a moment before getting up from his spot and walking towards the door. He sat there and stared at his sire, waiting for Soundwave to look up. The silver mech did and looked a bit confused and hurt that Ravage was leaving at a time like this. The oldest looked very determined and smirked a bit. “I want to go and find Frenzy.”

“No.” Soundwave immediately followed with, glaring a bit. “I will not lose another one of us, especially my oldest.”

“Then you will go and find him?” Ravage questioned.

“No one will find him. No now at least.” Soundwave answered back, shaking his helm. “I will not lose another one of my creations to the Autobots for something so foolish.”

“Then who is going to find him?” Ravage argued. “Frenzy is hurt and missing! We need to find him, yes?”

“Ravage, sit down.” Soundwave warned, letting his emotions get the best of him for once. “I will not lose you.”

“You will not! I am stronger than Frenzy!” Ravage growled and his tail whipped around. “I will find him and bring him home! I am the oldest! It is my responsibility to take care of the younger ones!”

“You will not!” Soundwave yelled and growled at his creation. “You are still my creation and I do not want to lose you like I have with Frenzy! As much as you believe it is not true, the Autobots are dangerous! You will not be going anywhere!”

Ravage felt some hurt flow through the bond and sighed, knowing that Soundwave wouldn’t want to lose anyone else. Frenzy, being one of the younger creations, was Soundwave’s pride and joy. All of them were. But knowing that the little mech is somewhere he could get hurt and probably is hurt, Soundwave was scared that he wouldn’t get his creation back. A bond like that is very painful to break and Soundwave didn’t want one of his creations to die yet. The black panther walked back to the berth, leaped up and sat back down.

All of the creators decided to try and help their creator that that point. The two condors pushed the silver mech down into the berth and cuddled up next to him. Rumble climbed up to where Soundwave’s chestplates was and sprawled out on them. Ravage crawled into the mech’s middle and curled up there, keeping his sire form getting up. Ratbat didn’t really move much, but shifted down to the mech’s cheek and curled up there. Then, all the creations started to send love and affection through the bond.

Soundwave smiled to himself as his family sent warm and welcoming energy through the open bond. He sighed and remembered that all of his creations were there for him and all cared about Frenzy as much as he did. He thought back to Starscream’s conversation and frowned. Something seemed off about the whole explanation. It was very vague, Starscream seeming to only telling what he wanted to. If the Autobots had captured Frenzy, then wouldn't they have contacted Starscream by now for a trade off.

The communications officer sighed, knowing he was probably overthinking this and was too tired and paranoid to think straight. He sent a goodnight to all of his creations, even one through to Frenzy, and closed his optics. He went into recharge for the night and hoped tomorrow would be better. He would go and find Frenzy by himself if he had to and would bring him home.

The next morning, Soundwave came out of recharge to find Ratbat missing and a message from Starscream to meet him on the bridge for a mission briefing.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ratbat shows up unexpectedly to the Autobot base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Frenzy woke up in Dorothy’s lap, leaned against her front and started to cry out in pain as all of it flooded back into his systems.

The little mech had been placed back into his cybertronian form the moment Ratchet had started examining him. Dorothy had brought the CD player with her, just in case. Barricade and Bumblebee were already at base since they were dealing with another issue, which Dorothy found out later that it had to do with Ryder and the Decepticons. The woman was in a calm panic, meaning that she look perfectly calm on the outside, but was freaking out on the inside. She didn’t know what was wrong with Frenzy and it was not making her any calmer.

Ratchet had finished his examination on the little mech and found a techno-organic poison tainting Frenzy’s energon. Being that Frenzy’s holo-avatar connected with his cybertronian body, the chip’s energon must had been carried over into the energon lines before Barricade took off the chip. The poison seemed to have been triggered by something in the last week, since Frenzy was almost kidnapped a month and never showed any signs of it. Ratchet said he would begin to try and find an antidote for the poison.

Dorothy immediately asked Barricade to head to the police station to question Mayrin on who she got the poison on and if she had an antidote premade if something were to happen. Then, she asked Bumblebee to go through Ryder’s files and any document. She had a sneaking suspicion that he also had something to do with this. The two mechs quickly left to do their jobs, leaving Ratchet and the woman alone in the med bay to help with the patient. Dorothy, being Frenzy’s “carrier”, started to take her job very seriously.

Right now, it was 1:00 a.m., which meant it was very early in the morning and Frenzy was awake again. Dorothy had drifted off again, since she had been woken up every two-three hours to aid Frenzy, ,but was once again awoken by the sound of Frenzy crying. She opened her eyes, yawning as she did and looked down at the youngling. The little silver mech was curled up on her lap and was nuzzling his face into her side as he was trying to wake her up.

Dorothy signed and shifted Frenzy again, sitting him up on his knee joints and laying his helm on her shoulder so he could be more spread out. The woman guessed that the sedatives that Ratchet had giving him a few hours ago had worn off. She reached down next to her and pulled up a cube full of off-shaded energon. It was medical grade, which Ratchet had told her to give to Frenzy if he woke up again and was in pain.

“Frenzy, I need you to sit up for a second.” the woman said tiredly and held the little mech up. He was crying again, sobbing quietly and trying to get Dorothy to not move his frame again. “You need to drink some energon. Medic’s orders.”

“N-Not h-hungry.” Frenzy complained and tried to cling back around her neck for more comfort. Dorothy held him in his spot and sighed. The little chirps and clicks had resurfaced as Frenzy was begging him to let him go back to sleep. Ratchet had been helping her learn some of the native language since Frenzy sometimes got too comfortable and switched from English to Cybertronian on her. The woman could understand small phrases, but not a lot else.

“Frenzy, the energon is going to help you.” Dorothy explained and sat Frenzy better on her lap so she could hold up the energon. “The pain will go away once you drink it, I promise.”

“NO!” Frenzy argued and started coughing again, his vents loudly sputtering and making the little mech fall forward. Dorothy sighed heavily and moved the young mech around so his back could lean up against her chest. Ratchet said the best thing for the coughing was to let it pass and then get him to drink the med grade. The woman watched as the coughing calmed down and Frenzy turned his helm to cry into the side of her shirt.

Dorothy took her opportunity and placed two fingers under the mech’s chin. Frenzy rested his helm on them and watched as the small cube came up to meet his lipplates. He opened them and Dorothy helped him drink it, making sure the he didn’t spill any and he didn’t accidentally let any come back up. Frenzy had finished his cube slowly, but all of the serving of med grade was gone. The silver mech sighed a bit, being full again making him feel good, and cuddled up with Dorothy. The sedatives were only to dull the pain, but didn’t make him fall sleep.

“You feel better now?” Dorothy asked the little mech and felt the mech nod as he turned around to look at his carrier. He smiled and laid back in his original position against the woman’s chest on his front. “Good. Now try to get some sleep.”

“O-Okay carrier.” Frenzy replied, still a little shaken from the amount of pain he woke up in. He placed his servos up onto the woman’s face and patted her cheeks. He smiled brightly and continued to do it. He needed to remind himself that Dorothy was here and it wasn’t just a dream, or a spark terror for that matter. He giggled a bit and nuzzled his face into the side of her neck, yawning. “Night night.”

“Goodnight, Frenzy.” Dorothy replied calmly and closing her eyes to try and get some rest. She smiled and held Frenzy close, not wanting to lose him. She opened her eyes again to look around the room, knowing that Frenzy would wake up again in about three hours when the sedatives wore off. She hated this, not taking care of Frenzy, but the fact that she knew that Mayrin and Ryder were once again being the antagonist to her protagonist. It hurt inside to know that Frenzy was being hurt because she wasn’t being careful.

Suddenly, the sound of something falling from the rafters made her attention snap to the ceiling. It was too dark to see anything up there, but the sound of metal hitting metal echoed throughout the hangar. Dorothy’s hand instantly went to the sniper rifle sitting next to her and brought them up into a firing position. Frenzy was quickly transferred to a small berth that had been set up for him on the catwalk and the little mech whimpered. The loss of heat and affection made him a little upset. 

The sound echoed again and Dorothy saw a flash of reflected light shine off of something moving. Dorothy trailed the piece of flashing metal to another rafter row and loaded her rifle. The little figure up there seemed to look at her with an unsure look, red optics piercing through the darkness. The red optics scanned the catwalk and landed on Frenzy, making the figure’s wings twitch. Dorothy watched it carefully, not knowing anything of the creature but that red optics usually meant Decepticon.

Dorothy saw the figure moved back a bit and the woman lowered her sniper rifle as she watched the little figure move around from bar to bar. Dorothy didn’t really notice it at first, but as she watched the figure move around, she noticed how bat-like it was. The oval ears rotating, arms with wing skin in between, and it was small for a cybertronian. She also saw how scared it was of her, keeping up in the rafters and not moving closer among the rafters. It always stayed by the back part of the main room, just watching her and glancing at Frenzy every once and a while.

Then Dorothy realized how the little bat creature was. Frenzy had mentioned to her once that he had a sibling that looked like Earth bats. He was the youngest of the six of them and Soundwave was very overprotective of him. Dorothy thought for a moment, trying to remember the youngling’s name. Ratty...Rabby...Ratbat...no, wait. Ratbat, that’s what it was! Dorothy looked over at the young cybertronian and dropped her rifle. She knew he was probably just here for Frenzy, but the problem was where was the rest of them.

“Ratbat?” the woman asked, earning a small flinch from the little bat looking at her. “I’m not going to hurt you. You can come over if you want to see Frenzy.”

_ ::Decepticon Identified. Ratbat. Engaging Target.:: _ The sound of something turning on and the computer voice spooked the little bat into looking at a small device that was dormant on one of the rafters. The little bat chirped in curiosity as the machine whirled to life and a grappling gun transformed out of it. A small red laser appeared on Ratbat’s chassis and he whimpered a bit. 

Dorothy’s heart sank into her stomach. It was one of Ironhide’s fragging sentries! They were hooked up to the main computer, meaning they knew every single Decepticon in the book, including Soundwave’s children. “Disengage! Disengage all actions! Override, for Primus’ sake!” Dorothy yelled at the sentry, making it ceasefire for a moment. 

_ ::Voice unrecognized. Commands not registered.:: _ the sentry answered back and Dorothy groaned in response.

The woman looked at the sentry and then at Ratbat, who was scared to death of the thing trying to shoot him. Dorothy growled a bit, reminding herself to maul Ironhide later, and picked up her sniper rifle. “Ratbat, I need you to fly over to me. I’m going to shoot the sentry out, but I need you to move so I can get a clear shot.”

Ratbat looked between the human female and decided that if she was protecting Frenzy, then he could trust her, too. The little bat dove downwards and swooped back up to glide towards the woman. Dorothy smiled and brought her gun around as the sentry started going off. There was a bit of silence between in the air as the sentry waited for it to realign itself. Two shots simultaneously. One of them was from Dorothy’s sniper rifle, which shot a hole through the main computer box and the sentry turned off.

The other shot was from the sentry. It when off right before the sentry was destroyed and was still aimed towards Ratbat. Fortunately, the bullet didn’t go through the little bat’s spark chamber, but it did rip through one of the wings. Ratbat cried out in pain, tucked his wing in and lost his flight. Dorothy cursed under her breath and run down the stairs as fast as she could to catch the falling youngling.

Ratbat landed in Dorothy’s arms just before he crashed to the ground, making him squeak and cling onto the appendages that were holding him. Dorothy ended up diving for the little bat and slid against the concrete floor as she landed as well. The woman gasped in pain as she felt some skin get teared a bit by the hard floor, but sighed in relief when she realized her caught Ratbat. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.” she reassured the bat curled up in her arms.

Dorothy slowly got up and walked back over to the catwalk, making sure to hold onto the little bat very closely so he doesn’t slip out of her arms. Ratbat was squirming, afraid of what the woman was going to do with him. He began chirping and clicking in fear as the woman placed him down on the desktop as she pulled out a box from underneath it. The bat’s red optics peeked over at his wing to see it was teared and leaking energon. He started screeching and shaking in fear.

“ _ It is okay. I will not harm you. _ ” a series of clicks came from Dorothy as she opened up her repair kit. She silently thanked Ratchet and Optimus for teaching her some Cybertronian. It was really hard to remember what clicks and chirps went where, but she enjoyed a good challenge every now and again. Ratbat froze and looked at the human. He chirped again in fear and Dorothy laughed warmly as she realized how confused little bat was.

“ _ You know Cybertronian? _ ” the little bat asked, tilting his head as he watched the woman place a small rag over the rip in his wing and clear the energon.

“ _ A little. _ ” she replied back, carefully applying some metal mesh over the wound. She then flipped down her sunglasses that she would use metal lasers or regular everyday sunglasses and took a welder out of the box. She turned it on and welded the mesh over the wound, creating a patch and seal over the leaking energon and fixing the wing. Ratbat squeaked a bit as he felt the welder nic some of his undamaged plating. Dorothy stopped and looked up. “ _ Sorry. _ ”

When Dorothy was finished with her patch job, she packed up everything and looked over the youngling. He was still shaking a bit, but seemed to have calmed down a bit. The woman looked back at Frenzy for a second, seeing he was still resting peacefully. She smiled and yawned a bit. “So, why are you here? Did your boss send you?”

The little bat nodded. “Frenzy needs to come home.” he said, sounding like Frenzy would usually. He seemed to be younger than Frenzy, from what she had been told, but had the same speech pattern.

“Frenzy can’t go home right now.” Dorothy answered back, kneeling in front of the desk. “He’s sick. The Autobots are trying to help him get better.”

Ratbat tilted his helm and his little nose twitched. “But Star said Frenzy captured.”

“Well, Starscream lies a lot.” Dorothy replied, knowing exactly was Ratbat was talking about. Of course Starscream was behind his. When was he not a pain in her side? “Frenzy is here because I brought him here. He came for me for help. He thinks I’m his carrier.”

“Carrier?” Ratbat questioned. The little bat sniffed the woman quickly and chirped. She smell like a carrier, which was weird since she wasn’t a cybertronian and didn’t seem to have any offspring of her own. Her field was warm and gentle, but overprotective and safe just like a carrier’s field should be. The little bat moved his wing forward to touch the human’s hands, which was holding onto the edge of the desk. “Carrier.”

“I’m not actually a carrier, Ratbat.” Dorothy answered, smiling. “I think Frenzy was just a little homesick, so he wanted me to be his carrier. I’m okay with it, but I don’t think I technically qualify as one.”

“Carrier.” Ratbat repeated and walked forward on his hind legs, grabbing onto Dorothy’s arms and smiling brightly at her. Ratbat never had a carrier before, since Soundwave was the only creator he ever had. He was young so his processor seemed to register the human as a good carrier if she was taking care of Frenzy. He continued to climb onto Dorothy and moved to sit behind her neck and drooped his wings around her head. “Carrier.”

Dorothy sighed and got up from the desk, smiling a bit. “Alright, fine. But you’re going to have to explain to the Autobots tomorrow why you’re here.”

Ratbat chirped happily and nuzzled his helm into the top of the woman’s helm. Her hair kinda looked like male hair, but it was soft and fluffy. He yawned a bit and snuggled into the human’s head, closing his optics to sleep some. But something was off. He suddenly opened his optics and stared at the wall across from him. The little bat chirped with sadness as he felt...empty.

“Beaky?” Ratbat asked out loud, catching Dorothy’s attention again. She was have picked up Frenzy and sat down with him in her lap. “Buzz? Rumble? Ravage?! Sire?! Sire?!”

Dorothy took the small bat off of her head and place him in her lap next to Frenzy. The little bat was whimpering and chirping randomly in panic. His chestplates were raising and falling way too fast and Dorothy started to get concerned. She hugged the bat close and started petting his back. Ratbat had started tearing up and crying out for his siblings and his sire. He was afraid and hurting, from what Dorothy could see, but she had fixed his wing and he didn’t seem afraid of her anymore.

“What’s wrong, Ratbat?” Dorothy asked the little bat who was clinging to her chest as he cried into it. “Why are you crying? I don’t understand what’s wrong.”

“I...I can’t feel them!” Ratbat yelled. “I can’t feel sire! Bond is broken!”

 


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soundwave hits a low point as a sire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

The communications officer couldn’t remember what happened to have himself in this position, but he was nervous and scared for himself and his creations.

Soundwave woke up to the sound of scared chirping and clicks around in his processor and groaned as he opened his optics to a blinding light. He reset his optics a couple of times to adjust to the light and found himself in the middle of a large storage room that was full of ceiling lights and loud noises. There were metal bars surrounding him and they all hummed, a sign that they were live with some type of charge or voltage. It was suffocating to a point where he had to block his sensors for a moment to focus again. 

The large mech waited a few minutes and tried to remember what happened. Mostly of his memories for the moment were blurred, his processor not being able to adjust to the idea of being in such a small space. He took a deep vent and calmed himself a bit, even if the scared chirps and clicks weren’t helping much. His memory cortex finally clicked and he started to remember what had happened to land him inside a cage. 

Starscream was the first thing to pop up and he growled out loud. The mech had sent him and his creations of a mission, minus Ratbat who had disappeared some time that night. The five of them arrived at the mission spot and were attacked by humans. The humans had aimed for his creations first and then for him. Rumble was the first one down, being incapacitated by an electrically pop-up cage. Next, the two condors were netted down and shocked into a forced recharge. Finally, Ravage went down after taking too many charged shots. 

Soundwave was surprised the humans were able to take down the four cybertronians so quickly and figured that Starscream probably set him up for this. He was distracted with the thought and the humans had successfully captured and force recharged him. The mech growled again and looked around the storage room, noticing the other cages with his creations all chained up in, just like he was. They all had collars on, including Soundwave, and they weren’t budging. The mech brought his servo up to touch it, but stopped as a roar sounded from across the room. 

“I wouldn’t touch it, if I were you.” Ravage warned, his tail flicking back and forth behind him in irritation. “It tells the humans you are online.” Soundwave moved his servo away and sighed looking at his creations. Ravage seemed to be the only calm one of them, the others clicking in fear. 

Soundwave sighed and reached out to them through the bond...only to feel nothing.

The communications officer froze for a moment and then tried again, still not feeling any of the bonds or any of the connections between him and his creations. He growled in anger and stood up, searching around the room to find someone to yell at. When he didn’t, he roared out in anger and pounded on the cage bars, forgetting they were live with electricity. The voltage sparked and connected with the cyber-matter of the cybertronian, shocking him and shooting him backwards into the set of bar behind him, electrocuting him again.

“Sire!” all of Soundwave’s creations yelled out in unison as the silver mech fell forward unto the ground. 

Everything hurt, including the new burn marks on his servos and back. He groaned and warily looked up to see four worried faces looking at him. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw had huddled together in the middle of the cage, wanting to keep away from the live bars. Rumble was sitting as close to the front of the cage as he could and not get shocked. And Ravage became infatuated with the fact that these humans were cocky enough to hurt his creator.

“How dare they!” Ravage growled up and lashed his tail and fangs violently. “Those humans are cowards! Using their technology to hurt Soundwave instead of doing it themselves! Come fight him yourself, you fraggers!”

“Ravage, language please.” Soundwave scolded, but noticed that the green light on Frenzy’s collar had turned yellow. He sat up and moved closer to the bar, not touching them though. “Stop it. You are going to hurt yourself.”

“How?!” Ravage roared. “Are magically bullets going to pop out of mid-air?! Is acid rain going to pour from the ceiling?! I didn’t know that humans were that advanced! If they were so smart, then they would come and fight us without their puny little weap-AAAAAAH!”

The collar’s light turned red and volts of electricity were injected into Ravage’s neck cables. The cyber-panther withered a bit as the volts surged throughout his frame, making his voice box and other parts of him seize up. The oldest of the spies fell to the floor after the electrocution was over and whimpered as the charge had paralyzed his frame, a small twitch every now and again.

Soundwave and the other spies stared in a bit of shock as the oldest crumpled to the floor. Soundwave stood up with a slight tremble, since his electrocution was still taking some type of effect on his systems. He saw the small security camera in the corner of the room and glared at it. The humans seemed to have prepared for their capture, making sure that each of their emotions would be in check. Starscream must have wanted Soundwave out of the way permanently. 

“W-What d-do we do, Boss?” Rumble asked, coolant beginning to pool behind his optics. “H-How are w-we g-gonna find F-Frenzy and Ratbat?”

“Humans will come in soon enough.” Laserbeak piped up, gesturing with her wings. “They always want something.”

“But what is the question.” Buzzsaw commented on her twin’s statement. “Humans are tricky. They like to lie and deceive others. They won't let us go.”

“W-We’ll b-break o-out.” Ravage stuttered and tried to stand himself up from his limp position on the floor. “R-Right?”

Soundwave didn’t answer, too busy thinking about how Ratbat and Frenzy were gone, he couldn’t feel any of his creations and he couldn’t even save any of them from harm at this point. The communications officer sat down on the floor and closed his optics, trying to breath a bit more. Truth be told, he never really like places that suffocated him, especially when he couldn’t help his creations. His children tied him to the ground, giving him a little bit of hope that each day would be filled with constant nagging or deafening roars. But now, he had nothing.

 

“Guys, Soundwave is freaking me out a bit.” Rumble commented on his creator’s much too relaxed position. “Is he alright?”

“I don’t know.” Buzzsaw commented, shuffling back to sit with her sibling. “Maybe the humans did more damage than we thought. I mean, not to worry everyone, but shouldn’t we have felt a little bit of pain when Ravage go shocked?”

Everyone was silent for a moment before they all tried at the same time to reach each other through the bond. But sadly, none of them could feel each other or Soundwave. Rumble started to panic and hold his chassis against his servos. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw huddled closer together since they couldn’t even feel their twin bond anymore. Ravage looked towards Soundwave and then at the others, sighing and curling up in a ball on the floor of his cage. How?

Soundwave looked up and sighed, as Ravage did. He didn’t like to see that his creations were panicking so much. He only hoped that wherever Ratbat was, he was safe. And for Frenzy, he just wanted one of his youngest back alive. He couldn’t even feel the youngling’s blocked bond again. He looked over at the human-sized door and growled in anger. He wanted his sparklings to be safe, so he was going to make sure of it. What he didn’t realized thought, was that his collar light was on yellow.

“We will get out.” the creator said to his creations, making them all look over at him. “We will get back home and find Frenzy and Ratbat.”

“I don’t think it will be that easy.”

All of the cybertronians looked at the human door as a male in a white lab coat walked in and had a large smirk on his face. He had a name tag on his lab coat that read out “Dr. van Driud” and he seemed to be a scientist of some sort. Ravage growled and the condors hissed, setting all of their lights at yellow. Rumble looked at the man and cowered back in his cage, carefully not to touch the walls. The scientist looked so pleased with himself as he looked over at the five cybertronians in his storage rooms. He walked further in and over to Soundwave’s cell while all of his creations growled and hissed at him.

“You must be Soundwave.” the man spoke up, catching the mech attention more. “Mr. Star had mentioned that you would be staying with us for a while.”

“Mr. Star?” Laserbeak questioned the man. “You mean Starscream? That is the stupidest nickname I have ever-AAAAAAH!”

The man take a remote control out of his coat pocket and clicked a button, administering a high-voltage shock through the collar around the condor’s neck. Buzzsaw squeaked and moved aside, her back touching the cell bars and crying out as the cell shocked her as well. Rumble whimpered and scooted back in his cell. Ravage’s audials folded back and he moved away from the scientist. Soundwave’s optics widen and he growled down at the man.

“What do you want from us?” the communications officer immediately asked the man. “Why do you punish them? They made a harmless comment.”

“Dominance.” Dr. van Druid answered. “Absolute control over your test subjects so they don’t run away. I made that mistake the first time by not asserting myself more, but I have learned from that little vermin to never let any of you cybertronians never a computer of any kind.”

Soundwave froze and wonder what he meant by that. “Little vermin” was a common nickname for Rumble and Frenzy whenever they pranked someone. But, Frenzy was with the Autobots...right? That’s what Starscream said, but then again, Starscream does lie a lot. If Frenzy wasn’t with the Autobots this whole time, then...but he couldn’t be. Frenzy was smart and could get himself out of situations. He certainly would have gotten out if he was okay...but he wasn’t okay. He was damaged.

The creator suddenly clenched his servos into fists and stood up. “What have you done to my creation?! Where is Frenzy?!” the mech growled out and Dr. van Druid laughed a bit, musing at the mech.

“You sure catch on fast.” the man mused. “But I would watch your anger if I were you. Naughty mechs and femmes get punished after all.”

Soundwave was about to argue when his collar light turned red and a devistanting shock surge through his frame, making him cry out a bit and clamp his mouth shut. He felt forward and held himself up with his servos as the shock lingered in his systems. He might of even felt his spark stop for a moment. He coughed and hacked loudly as he looked over at the scientist standing there with a proud look in his face.

“I can assure you that Frenzy is no longer in my possession.” the man explained, gritting his teeth in anger almost. “I would have him still if my stupid ex wasn’t so nice to cybertronians. Stupid Autobots and her are going to ruin the plans. Dorothy protects this...Dorothy saves that. I hate her!”

Soundwave listened to the conversation as he recovered from the electrocution. A human was taking care of Frenzy? A female as well. This male apparently used to date this female, remembering some slang words he search up in an English dictionary, but fell apart. This human, by the mention of the Autobots, was probably with them and had Frenzy with her. This Dorothy was helping Frenzy live and if that was the case, then he knew Frenzy would be okay. The Autobots have soft spots for humans.

“What happened to Frenzy?” an uncharacteristically shy voice came from the far side of the room. Rumble was looking at the man in fear as his sire was electrocuted. The little mech heard his twin’s name and reacted. He wanted to know where his sibling was. 

Dr. van Druid smiled and walked over to the little Decepticon’s cage. He bent down and smiled as he looked over the youngling. A perfect twin of his brother. “Oh, you’ll find out. I have recently learned that cybertronian twins have the same sparks as each other. So the test that Frenzy didn’t finish, I am going to enact on you.”

Multiple growls and hisses came out of nowhere as the man seemingly threatened the youngest creation in the room. Ravage and Soundwave get the most upset. Ravage growled at the man, not caring that his collar’s light was changing colors. “You touch him and I’m going to rip you in half!”

The scientist laughed and took out his remote. Ravage visibly flinched, knowing how back the voltage could get. “Please do show me. I would love to see that happen all the way over here.”

The cyber-panther growled, but sat down in the cage. He didn’t want to get shocked again, since the last shock nearly made his sensors go numb. Ravage curled his tail around his paws and curled up in the cage again. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw gasped a bit, knowing that Ravage never backed down from a challenge. Soundwave was too a little shocked, but knew that he wouldn’t want to be shocked again either. 

“What do you want with my creations?” the communications officer asked, wanting answers out of the mech. “They are innocent compared to me. Why hurt them?”

“Mr. Star wanted you out of the way. All of you.” the man answered, placing his remote back into his pocket. “I was expecting six of you, but it seems that little bat of yours is not here. It’s too bad. I did have something planned for the little one. I wanted to see how long sparklings could last without their creators.”

Soundwave rammed up against the side of the cell, electrocuting himself again. He was infuriated at this point. Ratbat was a sparkling, barely old enough to live on his own without his creator. Ratbat was the youngest of all of them, meaning that Soundwave had to take the most care of him. And his human wanted to separate them over a long period of time, which was extremely dangerous. The little mech would become severely touch-starved and wouldn’t be able to function properly. 

But then it hit him that he didn’t have a single clue where Ratbat was either. His bond was cut off to all his creations and Ratbat was all alone, by himself and had no creator to take care of him. All of them had checked the entire base when before they left that day for the mission and couldn’t find him. Soundwave, of course, had a slight idea of where his youngest was, but that was because of his bond. But now he couldn’t feel anything. He had been defeated. 

Suddenly a yelp and a cry bursted out from one of the cells and Soundwave turned to see three other scientists walk in and take Rumble out of his cage. He squirmed and fought them, but they activated his collar and forced him into a recharge. Ravage started yelling and the condor twins started shrieking at them. 

But Soundwave said nothing. He had lost two of his children and was about to lose the rest.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

“Carrier, me hungry!” Ratbat exclaimed as he climbed onto the woman’s face and nuzzled her nose. “Want energon!”

Dorothy woke up with a groan and looked at the little bat clinging onto her face. She couldn’t help but smiling at him. The little bat was very adorable. She reached up and took the clingy sparkling off her face. He liked to hang upside from her head when he was sleeping or wanted her to wake up. It was very cute. She booped Ratbat on the snout and made him giggle.

The little bat had been with the Autobots for about a two days now and Ratchet was still working on the antidote. Barricade didn’t get anything off of Mayrin, but Bumblebee did find some notes from Ryder’s files about creating a poison with similar effects Frenzy was having. Right now, Frenzy was sleeping soundly for once with Ratchet’s med grade helping him sleep. The energon had medication in it to help dull the pain and keep the poison at bay until they could fix the problem. 

As for the Autobots, Ironhide was not very happy. One of his sentries were destroyed. There were more Decepticons in the base. And furthermore, Dorothy seemed to be becoming more and more of a Decepticon supporter than an Autobot supporter and it was ticking him off. The weapons specialist groan and fake hacked at the slight of Ratbat being cute. “Why are we letting him stay here again?” the older mech asked Optimus.

“Because your sentry shoot him down and his wing is still healing.” Dorothy randomly answered from the catwalk as she was getting a regular cube of energon for Ratbat. “And yes, that’s your fault remarkably.”

Ratbat giggled a bit and bounced on her lap as he waited for his energon. He liked Dorothy, who acted a lot like Ravage. If Ravage was a femme, he would probably look and sound like the human female. But Dorothy was his new carrier, in his processor at least, and he knew that having a carrier would be good. The bond to the rest of his siblings and his sire were blocked to a point where he couldn’t feel them. At first, he thought they were all dead but realized that he would have been dead too. So, he decided to make the woman his carrier since Frenzy thought the same.

“Energon! Energon!” Ratbat chanted as Dorothy got a cube form under her desk. She picked it up and placed it next to her. Ratbat was placed on the desktop as she held out the cube, the little mech instantly bringing up his wings to grab it. Dorothy pulled it away and tapped the bat’s helm, telling him to wait. The little Decepticon pouted, but his little tail was still wagging a bit.

“What do we say when we want something?” Dorothy asked, placing the energon down on her lap.

“May please have energon?” the little mech asked as politely as possible and Dorothy gave him the cube. The little bat chirping in excitement and started drinking the cube, downing the energon. Dorothy tilted the cube back a bit and helped him drink slower. Ratbat drank the energon at the pace Dorothy set and finished it completely full. “Thank you.” the little mech replied.

“You’re very welcome, Ratbat.” Dorothy answered and picked up the little bat in her arms.

Ratbat yawned a bit and nuzzled into the side of the woman’s face. “Nap with Frenzy?” Dorothy sighed and looked over at the little mech sleeping on the berth. He didn’t even know that his younger sibling was here yet, since he had been sleeping a lot. But Dorothy nodded and placed the little metal bat next to Frenzy. The little Decepticons cuddled together after a while, but Ratbat was still staring at Dorothy. 

“Sire would like Dorothy.” the little bat said out loud and caught the woman’s attention. “Dorothy smart and funny. Dorothy carrier. Dorothy would like Sire. Sire smart and calm.”

Dorothy quirked an eyebrow at the little mech and chuckled a bit. “You think? I would think Soundwave would be mad at me for keeping you two.”

“No.” Ratbat replied. “Soundwave like other who like siblings. Sire like Dorothy.”

The woman chuckled and nodded. “Go take your nap, Ratbat.”

The little bat nodded and curled up next to his older siblings. He smiled to himself as he felt into recharge, dreaming of his sire and his carrier meeting each other.

 


	27. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soundwave has a vision about his creations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I'm sorry I left for so long, but I needed to take a break. But i hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Soundwave couldn’t recharge out of the fear that one of the scientists would come in and take one of his creations again and he would wake up in pain.

The communications officer had been through a lot of pain in the last few days. The humans eventually found out that Soundwave could feel his creations’ pain through the bond that they block. So, they decided to take off the bond dampener, but didn’t take off the collar. They removed the dampener enough so that emotions could travel through. The five cybertronians couldn’t talk to each other through the bonds, but they could still feel the pain of everything the humans did to them.

The first day of the dampener being off, Soundwave was numb to all the pain his creations had been going through. But after going through multiple tests and experiments, Soundwave could barely move from his spot on the floor of the cage. He sat there, optics dull as he watched his creations recharge. He could see all of them from his spot, which made the creator feel a lot better. Knowing that right now, he had all of his children with him.

Ravage was damaged physically and egotistically. The normal aggressive and snappy cyber-panther was now a shell of themselves. His legs were dented in from the restrains the humans have used on him. Some of his plating was cracked open and leaking energon and other parts were removed and terribly welded back on. The panther never seemed to talk back to Dr. van Druid when he walked in the room and never once made a snarky comment towards a human. The oldest was curled up tight around himself and didn’t move.

Laserbeak and Buzzsaw were only physically damaged from what Soundwave could tell. The two condors had their wings bounded to their sides. They had several injuries as well, mostly consisting their wings and their frames, but the two condors were cuddled up together in their cage, shaking. Their systems seemed to be suffering from the amount of damage they had been through and their heating systems had been compromised. They were shivering and desperately trying to get warmer. They couldn’t get any warmer than the room they were in and the storage room was not at room temperature.

Frenzy had been the one to sustain the least damage. His legs were a little damaged and his frame was burnt from electricity. He had been silent as well, seeming to sink further into his shell of protection. He wanted his twin back. He wanted to be cuddled by his siblings again. He wanted to be cuddled by his sire again. He just wanted to go home. He started to feel the same way everyone else did as they all seemed to sink into a shell of protection and falsehood.

Soundwave sighed and moved himself down to the floor, spreading out as much as he could. They hadn’t done any physically torture to the mech yet, but the ghost pains from his creations and the thoughts of how he couldn’t protect them and how they were getting hurt seemed to be torture enough. He stared up at the ceiling of the cage and sighed, not wanting to be in pain anymore. He let his processor travel to other thoughts while he tried to discrated himself from all of his sensors going haywire.

His thoughts instantly went to Ratbat and Frenzy. His two youngest of all his creations and he had no idea where they were. He sighed and tried reaching out through the bond for them again for the twentieth time. And just like all the other times, Soundwave could feel the blocked and hurting spark of Frenzy and the frightened spark of Ratbat, but couldn’t communicate with them. His optics closed at he thought about how he was going to find them. He was captured by humans and Starscream probably planned it. It was basically impossible at this point.

Then another thought popped in. The scientist had mentioned a woman, his past lover of some kind, that had ruined his plans. Who was this woman? The name Dorothy was mentioned as well, but his memories was blurred from the amount of pain he was trying to ignore. This Dorothy seemed like an Autobot, but Soundwave wondered why this human was so important. He couldn’t do any research without the humans finding out, but it made the mech wonder if she was safe to communicate with. She clearly must have worked with the Autobots, but a few other humans had mentioned the woman being part of the law and other activities.

Soundwave decided not to dwell on it and try to get some recharge for once. He closed his optics and set himself into recharge.

_Soundwave heard a scream and thought he jolted awake because of it. He sat up to find the world blurry and coulded in his optics. He thought he was just back in the cage until he stood up and felt that the collar wasn’t around his neck cables anymore. He would have shouted in relief until he found himself trying to connect with his creations, but failing. Which meant that he was in recharge and he was just having a dream._

_Soundwave’s vision cleared a bit to see he was in a large warehouse, one with cybertronian tech in it. He wondered if he was envisioning himself in the Decepticon base when he remembered that the Decepticon base was underground and the walls were made of rock. It must have been the Autobots’ base then, thinking about their relation to humans and the resources provided. But the question really was why was he in the Autobot base._

_He heard another cry and looked towards the staircase of a catwalk. He then realized he was human sized. Soundwave was beginning to not like this dream. He walked over to the stairs and walked up it, his pees not making any noise. He peeked up at the catwalk from the stairs to see something he didn’t expect. He almost fell backwards off of the stairs because he had been shocked so badly._

_There, together, were Frenzy and Ratbat in a small customized berth. Ratbat was awake and crying to himself as Frenzy was still sleeping next to him. Why were they in the Autobot base?! Was this actual a dream at all?! Was Starscream right about the Autobots having his creations?! He rushed up the rest of the stairs and knelt down in front of the berth, trying to grab Ratbat into his lap to comfort him._

_But sadly, his servos passed right through the bat’s frame and Ratbat continued to cry louder. He panicked a bit and stood back up. He could feel how torn ratbat’s spark was and wondered if the loss of returned connection to their bond was affecting him badly. Frenzy began to stir soon and hugged himself with the blanket tightly wrapped around his shoulders and frame. He looked worse than Ratbat and he could tell that the lone twin was ill. Soundwave really didn’t really know what was going on at this point, but knew this had to be some sort of vision since he could feel his cassettes’ pain._

_Suddenly, there was a sound of a fusion cannon charging and Soundwave quickly turned around to see Ironhide standing there with his cannon pointed at his creations. The mech instantly become protective and tried to block his children from the Autobot weapons specialist. He then realized that if he could touch anyone, then a blaster shout would pass through him as well._

_“Would ya quit cryin’ already?” the black gruffy mech threaten the two little Decepticons. “What happened this time? Ya have a spark terror of somethin’?”_

_“M-Misses sire.” Ratbat explained, wrapping his wings around himself a bit._

_“Well ya should have thought of that before flyin’ all the way here, huh?” Ironhide answered back and earned a sad whimper from the bat. Soundwave wasn’t very happy at his point. The Autobot had no right to offend his creations like that. It’s perfectly understandable that Ratbat and Frenzy would miss him. He missed them as well. He would yell at him if he was actually there. But he was a spectator and couldn’t do anything about it._

_A rifle shot sounded in the hangar and the weapons specialist flinched a bit as it missed his face by about three inches. The two mechs snapped their helms towards where the shot come from and Soundwave was a bit confused. Ironhide cursed under his breath as the figure came forward more and pointed their rifle at the mech again._

_There was a woman there, or what Soundwave thought was a woman. Her hair was in a male’s sylte, but she clearly had the exterior of a human woman. Rounder eyes, rounder face, no facial hair, risen chest, round hip joints and a short stature. If she were a femme, she would be of great attractiveness among their kind, if not a little too masculine. She also had a somewhat built body as her tank top showed most of her arms and shoulders. Soundwave was still confused on who this woman was, no matter what he was thinking._

_“What have I told you about bothering them, Hidey?” the woman scolded as she walked towards the catwalk stairs. “I understand they are Decepticons, but they are still younglings, right?”_

_Ironhide growled a bit, but backed off from the woman. “There’s little pit-spawns and you haven’t seen what they can do when they’re in the joking mood.”_

_The woman sighed and walked up the staircase part way before she stopped. “Remember, that was a warning shot. Next time you insult them, I’m not missing.”_

_The Autobot looked somewhat panicked at the woman and huffed as he left the room. Soundwave immediately liked this woman. Someone who stood up for his creations was okay in his datapad, even if they were an Autobot or aligned with them. The woman walked up the rest of the stairs quickly and made her way over to the small berth to pick up Ratbat and cradle him in her arms. Ratbat seemed to come down after a while and nuzzled his muzzle into the crook of her neck as she went to sit down in the chair by a metal desk. Soundwave stood to the side and watched this human comfort his youngest._

_“What’s wrong, Ratbat?” she asked caringly to the youngling as he sat in her lap against her body. “You have another spark terror?”_

_The little bat nodded and flexed his thumb claws on the woman’s arms. “M-Misses Soundwave. N-Need s-sire.”_

_The woman seemed to smile and rubbed his back, the little bat relaxing against her front as he tried to help him relax more. His little tail wagged happily behind him at the attention and he began chirping with happiness. The human hummed a bit and glanced over at Frenzy once and a while, who had laid back down and went back into recharge. Soundwave noticed that the human didn’t seem afraid of his creations, even if they were still Decepticons. She didn’t seem to mind._

_The woman chuckled as the little bat sat back in her lap and opened his oral cavity. His little glossia hung out of his mouth and his little sharp teeth showed. He made little flappy motions with his wings, telling the woman that he wanted some food. The woman took a plastic container of from under her chair and opened it to pull out a small cube with energon in it. Ratbat became very excited as he went to grab at it._

_“No Ratbat.” the woman mildly scolded, moving the cube away. “What do you say?”_

_The little metal bat sat back down and smiled up at the woman. “May I please have energon, Dorothy?”_

_The woman smiled warmly and bend down to kiss the top of his helm, earning a happy squeak from him. “Yes, you may.” She placed the energon cube in front of her and allowed the little bat to take it from her._

_Soundwave watched as his youngest drank his energon properly and took small sips. The mech was surprised that this human had gotten his creation to do that. Then he switched his thoughts back to the fact that Ratbat had called the human Dorothy. Was this that scientist’s ex-lover? She seemed to be nice and caring, but offensive and over protective towards others. There must have been a good reason for the male human to cut off their relationship since Soundwave couldn’t think of one. She seemed like the perfect...why the heck was he thinking about this?!_

_He quickly shook his helm and watched as Ratbat finished his cube with one last sip. The little bat hiccuped, but placed the cube in the garbage container by extending his wings. He looked up at the woman and nuzzled her shoulder. “Thank you, carrier.”_

_Soundwave literally fell over at that point. It’s like all his systems just crashed when Ratbat said that. His creation called the human a carrier! He slowly stood back up to see the human was smiling a bit and Ratbat was excitedly chirping and squeaking at her. The mech wondered if this was because Ratbat had an absence of a creator at this moment and decided that his woman was the closest thing to a carrier or if the little mech wanted the human to actually be his carrier. Either way, the woman didn’t seem bothered by the name but seemed to know what it meant._

_She picked up the little squirming bat and placed him back down in the berth with his sibling. He whined when she let go of him and tried to hold onto her. Dorothy chuckled and sat down on the floor next to the berth as she tried to coax the little bat to go to bed. Ratbat jumped around a bit, but soon fell into recharge in her arms. The woman placed the little Decepticon in the berth and kissed both Ratbat and Frenzy in the helms._

_Soundwave watched again as she took her rifle from the staircase railing and walked down to the ground floor. She walked around the corner and came back around with a large mattress dragging behind her. She set up a bed next to the small berth and covered herself in blankets. She sighed looking up at the ceiling. “Love you two. I don’t know why you guys persist I’m your carrier, but I guess all female humans are motherly by nature. I never thought I could be a parent, but I guess this could be practice. I’m sure wherever Soundwave is he’s freaking out and scavenging the planet the planet for you. Goodnight.”_

Soundwave woke up on the floor of his cage and felt coolant running down his face. He sat up and looked over at the three smaller cages in the room. Ravage was still sleeping, the two twins were still there and Rumble was wake and staring at his creator. The large mech sighed and laid back down on the floor, shaking away the coolant drops that were forming. He was completely shocked by many things that had happened.

The one thing he couldn’t stop thinking about was that his youngest creations with probably with the most capable human in the world for them to be taken care of. Dorothy was certainly very much a carrier, even if she didn’t believe it to be so. He was happy to know his creations were safe, even if the Autobots did not approve of them being there. But he finally knew the first thing he was going to when he and creations escaped.

They were going to go and find Dorothy and thank her heavily for kicking Dr. van Druid’s aft a bunch of times and protecting their family.  

 


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Autobots get an unexpected call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Barricade and Bumblebee were cuddled up in the corner of the hangar, Ratchet was still working on the antidote for Frenzy, Optimus and Ironhide were talking about the lack of Decepticon activity that was going on and Dorothy was sitting in her desk chair with Ratbat curled up on her chest. Today was a good day.

This had been relatively very easy and quiet in the base the last week and Dorothy was almost wary of it. Only a few days ago, Barricade and Bumblebee officially announced to all of the Autobots and N.E.S.T. that they were dating and Ironhide almost killed Barricade. Everyone kinda expected this since Ironhide still didn’t like the idea of Barricade being here in the first place, but Ratbat and Frenzy got scared so Dorothy had to step in and confront it. Yelling and rifle shots induced and Ironhide soon apologized to Bee and left them alone.

The antidote for Frenzy was almost done and the little mech had been feeling better since he was first affected by the poison. All the medical grade energon he had been taking was lessing the pain, but it made him sleepy all the time. Ratbat was being a good sibling and watching over his older sibling when Dorothy either had to leave to go and work at the police station or had to go somewhere with Barricade. The two kids were very well-behaved and you really couldn’t tell if they were Decepticons or not. Well, Ratbat did like to pull small pranks on Ironhide, but that was it.

Dorothy sat on her computer, reading a file that the police station issued her saying that her job with the police had been shifted a bit so she didn’t have to come in as much. That made her happy since she could stay with Ratbat and Frenzy more and take care of them. Ratbat was recharging on her front and his ears were twitching. He was also making clicking noises, which meant bad dream or he was hurt. Dorothy subconsciously moved her hand to rub the little bat’s back and he stirred a bit.

“Morning.” she said as she felt Ratbat yawn and nuzzle his helm into her shoulder. “You okay? You were clicking again.”

“Soundwave…” Ratbat sleepily answered and looked up at the woman with dimmed red optics. “Miss Soundwave…”

“I know you do, bud.” Dorothy reassured the metal bat. “Frenzy does, too. Optimus and Ironhide are already trying to find him and figure out why the Decepticon have been so non-existent as of late.” The woman sighed as she looked down at the little bat. Ratbat was the youngest, which meant all his other siblings were older and probably stronger than him. Where were they? Where they with Soundwave, where ever he is? She remembered Barricade and Frenzy mentioning that Ravage was the oldest, so was Ravage not worried? Hopefully not.

Suddenly her computer flicked and shut off. Dorothy leaned back at bit and stared at the screen. Ratbat had perked up and looked at the screen, tilting his helm at it. “Computer do that?”

“Not supposed to.” Dorothy answered and looked over at Optimus, who was staring at the main terminal computer as it turned completely white. She stood up, cradling ratbat in her arm and walked over to the railing of the catwalk. Ratbat, not liking his position, climbed on top of Dorothy’s head and clung on from there as he wrapped his thumbs around some pieces of the burnette hair on the humans had. Dorothy smirked at the little bat as he climbed and looked over at Optimus. “Hey Prime? What’s going on?”

“I do not know. The terminal has never done this before.” he answered back and looked over at Ratchet, who was looking over at them. “Could this be a malfunction?”

“Ironhide, did you step on something again?!” Ratchet yelled at the weapons specialist.

“Why do ya always blame me?” the black plating mech spoke up. “What did I ever do to ya?”

Everyone one was very silence for a few moments and Ironhide just growled afterwards. Dorothy chuckled, but went silent as the terminal screen fizzled and showed a company logo on it that was a moon with a crossbow going through it. The name, “ARTEMIS”, popped up under the logo and Dorothy went stiff. She knew that company from the recent police reports he had been reading and they deal with weapons and other inventions for the government. She also found a file on the company in Ryder’s computer.

The screen started to fizzle again and Dorothy took Ratbat off of her head. The little bat wined and squirmed in her hands as she walked over to the small berth that Frenzy was sleeping on. Ratbat looked up at the woman with confused and tried to hang onto her arms as she went to walk away. “What wrong?” the little bat asked.

Dorothy sighed and knelt down in front of the berth. “I need to stay here with Frenzy for a moment. Nothing’s wrong, but I need you to watch Frenzy for me. Okay?”

Ratbat pouted a bit. “No, carrier stay too.”

“No, Ratbat.” Dorothy answered, removing his wings from her arms and placing him on the berth again. “I need to deal with this. Just stay here.”

Dorothy got back up from the floor and walked back over to the edge of the catwalk and watched as the screen turned into a video call. All the Autobots and Dorothy glared as Ryder swiveled around in his chair and smirked at them all. He looked too happy for anything one to go comfortable. Barricade and Bee stood up from there they were cuddling in the corner and walked over to the terminal. “I see that whole gang is here, even Dorothy sadly.”

“And he’s still a total aft. That’s nice.” Dorothy replied with a sarcastic expression. “What the heck do you want, Ryder. Or, let me guess, you miss me?”

“Sure. You could say that.” the man answered back, playing at the same level of sarcasm as Dorothy was putting out. “I’m just here to deliver the news that my new line of weapons for getting rid of cybertronians are finally operational and my current employer will be receiving them soom.”

“Wait, what?” Barricade answered up. “What do you mean by deal? Who the frag would buy your weapons after you just quit the government?”

“Ah and I see the police car and his racing boyfriend are here.” the scientist commented. “Does little Bumblebee want to help me test out my new restraint cables?”

Barricade stood in front of Bee, who froze as he remembered that night with Sector Seven, and growled at the man. “You lay a fragging finger on him and I’ll rip you into pieces!”

Ryder chuckled a bit and leaned back in his chair. “Oh don’t worry. I wouldn’t dream of separating you two yet. I can wait for that. But I would like to ask how Frenzy is doing after my little chip seemed to have taken its effect on him.”

Dorothy was now very pissed. “You know, I want to shoot you with my rifle right now, but it really wouldn’t do anything since you hiding away in your little company warehouses huh?”

“Aww, you know me so well.” he charmed as Dorothy made a face of disgust. “But I do have a surprise for the little guy. He’s gonna love this.”

“Well sadly, he’s recharging, so that’s not happening.” the woman answered back, becoming very overprotective. Then she realized that Ryder seened a little too happy. “Wait, what the heck did you do?”

“Oh nothing.” the man answered back, getting up from his seat and taking that camera with him as he walked over to the window in his office. “I was just given a job by my employer to get rid of some pest and I’d thought you’d like to see them.”

The camera turned into a storage room and all of the Autobots froze. There was Soundwave and his cassettes, all sitting in separate cages and looked completely beaten and damaged. From what Dorothy could tell from the video footage, there was a large mech, which was probably Soundwave, a large robotic panther, two condors and a little mech that looked exactly like Frenzy but had bronze plating inside of silver. Dorothy growled and began threatening the man. “You are a fragging glitch if you think that you are going to be able to keep them there for much longer.”

“And why would that be?” he questioned, keeping the camera on the storage room. “They can’t escape...unless you’re thinking of helping them to. But of course, you’re all Autobots so I would doubt that would happen.”

“SIRE!” Dorothy froze and turned to get Ratbat colliding with her face. She groaned as the little bat climbed on her face and started pointing towards the screen. Dorothy brought her hands up and removed the little Decepticon from her head. Ratbat squirmed and flapped his wings frantically. “Sire! Sire! Carrier, let me go! Need sire!!”

Dorothy groaned and turned around to see Ryder in complete shock on his face. ‘Oh scrap’ went through her mind automatically as she realized that what Ratbat said might not have been the best thing for him to say. “Ratbat, go back to the berth with your sibling now!” she scolded a little loud and watched the little bat flinch a bit.

“Don’t yell at him.” Ryder cooed a bit from his spot, suddenly enjoying the scene playing out. “I’ve been wondering where the other one went since he wasn’t with Soundwave when my men and I went on our job, but it looks like I found him now. He must miss his creator so much, huh ‘mother hen’?”

“You stay out of this.” Dorothy yelled at her ex, holding Ratbat close to her. “And yes, he does miss him. But soon enough, you’re probably going to lose a couple of cybertronians in your possession.”

“What? Since when did you become the mother of cybertronians?” Ryder snarked back, glaring at her.

Dorothy laughed darkly and grinned at the man trying to sass her. “Since you took a father away from his children and you messed with the woman who could probably kill you in less than ten seconds. Now being the mother of what; a police car, a muscle car, a CD player and a little bat? I’ve got my children to protect and I don’t care if I’m human or not, you better have your aft ready, you little son of a glitch, because as soon as I find out where the heck you’re hiding, get ready to have seven cybertronian and about twenty top grade military soldiers at your front door. Goodbye, Ryder! Was a inconvenience talking to you.”

The sound of a screen shattering and a rifle going off echoed through the hangar at the same time and Dorothy dropped her rifle as she walked back over to the little berth with Ratbat in her arms. All the cybertronians in the room stared at her as she walked away and didn’t say a word. :: _ You think she’s pissed? _ :: Bee whispered to Barricade, who only nodded back.

Ratbat was set back down on the berth and sat down next to him. The little bat sat there, staring at his carrier as she placed her head in her hands and sighed deeply into them. He blinked a couple of times before grabbing the plushed Zubat toy next to him and held it out for her. The woman looked at the little bat holding the little bat Pokémon and chuckled tiredly. “Carrier yelled a lot.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry.” Dorothy apologized, taking the plushie from Ratbat and placing it in her lap. “Did I scare you?”

“No. Sire scarier.” Ratbat admitted. He watched the lady sigh and frown a bit as she looked down at her hands. The little bat waddled forward and grabbed the woman’s head, booping her forehead with his glossia a bunch of times.

Dorothy chuckled and looked up at the little bat. “What are you doing?”

“Making carrier not worry.” he replied and nuzzled her head. “Things gonna be good. Family stick together. Barricade family. Bumblebee family. Frenzy family. You family.”

Dorothy sighed and hugged the little bat into her lap. Ratbat chirped happily and grabbed his Zubat toy into his wings. “Thanks, Ratbat. I needed that.”

Ratbat squeezed his toy a bit and looked up at his carrier with wondering optics. “Carrier really kick man’s butt?”

“You know I am. We gonna get your family back, don’t worry.”

 


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy decided to go break out Ratbat and Frenzy's family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

_ ::This is Dragon-One and Zubat, calling in that Flying Insect and Cop are in position.:: _

_ ::We’re all good here, Dragon-One. We are in position.:: _

_ ::Copy that, Cop. Ranger-One and Ranger-Two are in position with the cavalry?:: _

_ ::This is Ranger-One calling in with troops stationed in positions. Ranger-Two is...what the heck are you doing, Epps?!:: _

_ ::Okay. Nevermind then. Um...OP and Black Death, you in position?:: _

_ ::What the heck is the ‘Black Death’ and why am I called that? Why are we usin’ code names anyways? These are private comms! No one’s gonna hear us!:: _

_ ::Yes, Dragon-One. We are in position for distraction.:: _

_ ::Thank you, OP. I appreciate that you’re playing along. I will comm back when I have infiltrated and located targets. Over and out.:: _

Dorothy took her finger off the comm in her ear and looked over at Ratbat sitting on the ground next to her. He was watching the collection of warehouse carefully as the guards were walking the perimeter of the metal fence. His ears were twitching and moving, picking up the conversations between them and recording them in his processor. He smiled as he was doing this, since he was a spy in the first place and this reminded him of working with his creator.

“You ready, buddy?” Dorothy asked, leaning down to let the little Decepticon on her shoulder. The little bat nodded happily and climbed up from her hand to her head, clinging around it and perking his helm up to watch. “You remember the plan?”

“Find family.” Ratbat replied seriously as the human carrying him walked closer to the treeline. He thought for a minute and soon gasped in excitement as a thought entered his processor. “Carrier gonna meet Sire! Carrier gonna meet siblings!”

Clawed thumbs dug into the woman’s head as the little bat became very excited. She groaned and stopped moving to unhook Ratbat’s wings from her scalp. “Shhhhh! Stop yelling! This is a stealth mission, not a reunion.” she whisper-yelled at him, trying to keep her voice down.

Suddenly, a bush moved from in front of her and a light appeared through the treeline. She froze and felt Ratbat moved down to her back so he couldn’t be seen. The woman looked at the tree next to her and jumped up for the lowest branch and climbing up a ways so the two men coming through the bushes wouldn’t see her immediately. She took the little metal bat off of her back and placed him on the branch she was crouching on. The woman motioned Ratbat to stay there and looked back at the men.

“I’m sure I heard a kid back here.” one of them mentioned, scanning the dark forest in front of him with his flashlight.

“You sure? Maybe it was just a bird of something.” the other one commented, only to be tackled to the ground seconds later. 

He was incapacitated in seconds, his shoulder being dislocated and his gun taken for his hand and slammed into the side of his head. The other guard flinched backwards and raised his gun to point it at the attacker to find that they were pointing two guns at him. He froze, not knowing what to do, but was too late to attack as the intruder dropped a gun, grabbed his and slammed the butts of both guns against his head, making him fall over. Both of the guards were down and the attacker smiled.

Ratbat glided down from the trees and landed on Dorothy’s head as she picked up her own rifle and one of the guard’s assault rifles and placed them on her back. The woman looked down at the two men and smirked. “Caw caw.” she replied and walked away from the scene.

The two came to the large fence and looked down the path to see that there was a gate on the far left and unguarded. Dorothy trotted over and looked at the gate, thinking about how to get it open. The little Decepticon seemed to already be five steps ahead of her as he flew over the fence and to the other side to pull down the manual level for the gate. He grabbed the handle with his feet and flew backwards to get it to move. The level started to budge, but the gate seemed to open enough for Dorothy to get through.

The woman slipped through the opening in the gate and walked over to metal bat sitting on the level. He flapped up and onto her shoulders again, Dorothy giving him a little helm scratch. The little bat purred and nuzzled his helm against the side of the woman’s head, enjoying the reward. She chuckled a bit and Dorothy walked over to the side door, shooting the door lock off with her silenced handgun. The door swung open and the two walked inside of the building, going off to find Soundwave and the others.

The warehouses were big, which meant that it took some time of Dorothy and Ratbat to know where they were going. Most of the rooms were production rooms and filled with workers and guards. Dorothy had a hard time sneaking around since everyone was wearing white and she was wearing black and a cybertronian on her head. But thankfully, the woman found her way over to the science labs and decided to look for some of the research data they collected. Or at least what work Ryder was trying to accomplish with the weapons he was making. 

Ratbat was soon getting worried at his creator and siblings weren’t really here and started hugging his carrier’s head tightly. Dorothy stopped walking in one of the abandoned hallways and took Ratbat off of her head. The woman held the little bat close to her chest and stroked his back to get him to relax. The little bat looked up and smiled a bit at the woman, nuzzling closer to the heat her body was giving off. The Decepticon bat was still the youngest and being away from his sire for so long was starting to affect his processor that nothing was safe, even if the person he thought as carrier was with him.

Footsteps were rapidly coming down the hallway from in front of them and Dorothy quickly hid herself against the wall of the abandoned hallway she was in. Then yelling could be heard from the person walking towards them. “I swear that stupid cybertronian is starting to get on my nerves! He doesn’t respond to anything at all and his little parasites still fight back! That stupid robo-cat still tries to bite me every time I get near it and those birds are going to rip my hand off one day!”

Dorothy recognized the whining voice to be Ryder’s instantly. Ratbat recognized it too, cowering a bit in the woman’s arms since the little con knew that human was hurting his family a lot. The man in the labcoat walked by, running a hand through his hair as another person sped walked behind him, trying to keep up. “Maybe you shouldn’t get so worked up about this, sir. The weapons are still being produced off of the research we’ve acquired and the Autobots haven’t made a move yet.”

“That’s not the point!” Ryder argued back, marching down the hallway more. “Haven is tricky! You say the video footage! She had the little bat with her! As long as Soundwave doesn’t know that she has his spies and is looking after them, we should be fine. If she finds her way here, then Mr. Star isn’t going to be very happy when we lose another set of specimens for the weapons testing.”

The two men walked off down another hallway and Dorothy carefully moved out into the open a bit. She sighed and looked down at Ratbat, who was clinging to her and shaking a bit. The woman continued rubbing the little bat’s back and raced towards the direction Ryder just came from in hopes that it lead to where his office was. She carefully walked through the hallways until she reached a door that had a large electrical symbol on the wall above it and a light that had a “live” sign under it. Dorothy smirking and tried the door handle, finding it unlocked as it swung open.

Ratbat was the first to see it when the door opened and flew from Dorothy’s arms to enter the room and look around. Everyone was in there. Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, even Rumble as well. They were all there in large cages and unconscious at the moment. The little bat flew closer to the cage that his sire was in and saw there was a collar around his next. He chirped back at Dorothy in a distressed tone and glided down to her as she walked inside. 

“Sire hurt!” the little bat started panicking as Dorothy took in the sight of the large silver-plated cybertronian and the other cassettes around her. 

There was a large black metallic panther, a silver and dark blue condor and a copper mech that little exactly like Frenzy, meaning that these were Ratbat and Frenzy’s siblings. They were all twitching, meaning they had recently come in contact with electricity, but the collars were more concerning at the time. Dorothy looked down at all the cables in the room and trailed them all to a large box in the wall. She walked over to the box and examined it, following the cables as they seemed to lead out of the room and to some sort of power source. 

Ratbat looked at the box curiously and sat on top of it, digging his claws into the panel and tried to rip it off. He felt the panel shock him a bit and immediately backed off from the front of the panel. “It zapped me!” he said as he pointed to the box he was sitting on.

“It’s a electrical panel box. It holds all the cables together for when electricity flows through the wires in there.” Dorothy explained, getting closer to the panel and seeing inside of the hole that Ratbat managed to peel off. She looked back at the cages and sighed, feeling bad for all of them. The cages were live with a large amount of voltage, which wouldn’t kill a cybertronian the size of Soundwave, but would definitely kill a human. “And when you thought the restraint cables were bad enough…”

“What we gonna do?” Ratbat asked, looking at his family with a worried and scared look. “We not leaving, right?”

“No, of course not.” Dorothy said as she took out her silenced handgun and aimed it at the cables that fed into the panel box. “But I can’t touch the box without probably dying so I’m going to do things the ‘Ironhide’ way, I guess.”

“Shoot stuff?” the little bat asked, getting excited for what was going to happen. His little tail started wagging and a few little chirps sounded from his voice box. He looked at his family and then back at Dorothy as she smirked and nodded. He smiled and got more excited, but froze when he heard the door open. He turned his head with his ears and instinctively hissed. “Carrier! Scary-”

Dorothy looked up from her aim to see Ratbat get pushed off the panel box by a net and followed it as it trapped Ratbat against a wall. The little bat hissed again and started scratching at it, only to find the fibers were too sharp and hurting his wings and pedes as he was struggling. Dorothy looked over in the direction the net was shot from and switched her aim to the man standing in the doorway. 

“Dorothy!” Ryder exclaimed, sounding unnervingly happy to see his ex. “You finally made it! You...actually got her faster than I expected.”

“Someone didn’t hide their video call signal well enough.” she commented, still keeping the gun trained on the scientist. “And I like to listen to my kids when they want their sire back, so how could I say no to coming her and beating your sorry aft?”

“Wow, even using their curse words now too.” Ryder sassed her. “You’re spending too much time with them.”

“I’m one of their liaisons. It’s technically my job to be with them most of the time.” Dorothy countered. “I’m going to ask you as an official of law once to let them go peaceful. After that, things are probably go south very fast and someone’s going to lose a shoulder.”

Ryder stared at her for a moment before laughing at her face and Dorothy glared at the man. He sighed, regaining his focus and pulled a remote out of his pocket. The man pressed a button and a few grunts came from next to her as the collars around the Decepticons’ neck were activated and delivered a shock to each of them. All of them slowly came online and looked over at the two humans in the room. “Hello. I just wanted to introduce all of you to your savior, Ms. Dorothy Haven. Apparently she thinks she can ‘rescue’ you all.”

Dorothy watched as five pairs of optics feel on her and looked somewhat desperate. She turned her attention back to Ryder and saw that he was holding the remove still. “Give me the remote.” she demanded, holding out the hand that wasn’t holding her gun out. 

“You must be stupid is you think I’m going to hand this over.” the scientist answered and chuckled a bit. “But go ahead. Try your best. See what happens if you take a step. You came to save them so do your job.”

Dorothy hesitated for a second and growled in frustration. She knew what game Ryder was playing, having seen criminals do it before, but the one factor that was new was Ratbat seeing everything. If she went for the remote, Ryder would shock them until she would be able to get over to them and Ratbat would be a crying mess. If she shot the cables, Ryder would just shock them anyway. Unless…

Something flew at Ryder’s head and made him groan as it hit him dead in the forehead. He recoiled backwards and heard a gunshot go off as well. All the lights in the room turned off and he couldn’t see anything anymore. He then realized that the cables were shot and he couldn’t see his ex anymore. He gulped as he couldn’t hear anything else either, which when it came to Dorothy, that was usually a bad thing. Something grabbed his shoulder from behind and then there was a large crack.

The emergency lights came on a few seconds later with showed Ryder whimpering in the floor and Dorothy with the remote control in her hand. She pocketed her gun and tossed the remote happily as she walked away from the man. “Told you someone was going to lose a shoulder.” she remarked as she smirked back at the man.

Dorothy pressed the release button on the remote the sound of metal collars of different sizes echoed throughout the warehouse. She smiled and looked around for the level for the cages. It took a while to find, but she located it on a wall and pushed it down. The sound of locks unlocking sounded throughout the warehouse as well and the large cybertronian panther was the first to burst out of his cage. He roared at first and then collapsed on the floor, purring like crazy. “The sweet sweet ground! Oh how I’ve missed you!” the panther sighed as he rubbed up against the floor. 

The human chuckled and jogged over to release Ratbat from the net he was trapped in. She carefully ripped it from the wall and Ratbat immediately clung onto her. The little bat nuzzled her and climbed onto her shoulders to see better. Dorothy walked back over by the door as the rest of the caged Decepticons walked out of their cells and stretched their limbs. “Someone’s happy.” she commented as she watched the cat continue to rub and stretch on the concrete floor, making a grinding sound.

The panther froze and looked at the other human. It was female, but it still had weapons on it. He immediately got up on his paws and growled at her, inching closer to appear threatening. “Drop the weapons now, human!”

Dorothy glared at the large cat in front of her, having to look up slightly and then looked over at Soundwave, who was talking a while to get readjusted to standing on his pedes. “Well since we’re still all have to get out of here in one piece, I suggest that you shut up and I kept my guns.”

Ratbat peered up from behind Dorothy’s back and looked up at his oldest sibling with happiness. He smiled and hung onto Dorothy as she started arguing with Ravage. “Can I say hi?” the little bat whispered to the woman as his tail started to wag faster.

Dorothy chuckled and patted his head as the black panther in front of her gave a confused expression. “Of course you can. It’s the reason we’re here in the first place. To rescue your and Frenzy’s family.”

Ratbat giggled and climbed on top of her head, getting a shocked expression from his older sibling. “Hi Ravage! I’m okay and I found a carrier!”

Soundwave’s helm shot up hearing his youngest from across the room. He stood up from where he was hugging Rumble and walked over to the human. He realized the human woman was the same one from the dream he had a week ago, which meant Frenzy was okay as well. He took a knee next to Ravage and held up his clawed servo for his creation to climb onto. He smiled with relief that his youngest creation was safe. “Hello Ratbat.”

Ratbat switched his attention from ravage to Soundwave and didn’t bother climbing onto his hand. He flew straight into the air and hugged his creator’s face, chirping happily and nuzzling the mech’s face. “Sire! I found you! Carrier found you, too! She great carrier! Frenzy okay too, but he sick and back at base! Sorry I ran away, but I wanted to find Frenzy.”

Dorothy just watched as the Decepticon’s communication officer looked back at her and just stared for a moment. The mech didn’t really know what to say, being that this human had taken care and protected his creations and even saved him. Soundwave, through study of research, have found that humans were filled with rage and anger constantly. This woman, Ms. Haven since she did have a name, was indeed filled with anger and rage at times, but seemed to also show kindness and a motherly gesture to those in need.

“You okay there, big guy?” Dorothy asked, quirking an eyebrow and smirking at him. “You’ve been staring for a while. Hey, I know I look good, but I’m not just all appearance.”

Soundwave needed a moment to process the woman’s statement before the concept was understood and he immediately stood up and turned away, trying to hide the heat in his cheek that was forming from embarrassment. Ravage stifled a laugh and the two condors shared a knowing look. Rumble questioned silently the way his sire was asking and Ratbat only giggle a little. The panther stalked over and sat next to the human female. “You’re not so bad after all. And Ratbat seems to like you a lot.”

“And you must be Ravage, the oldest and has the more growl and bite.” Dorothy answered back and Ravage gave her a glare. The woman laughed and shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Frenzy told me all about you guys.”

“Frenzy?!” another voice shouted out. The little copper mech ran forward awkwardly, wincing a bit as he made his way over to the human. “What about Frenzy?! Is he okay?! Why isn’t he here with you if you brought Ratbat?!”

This must have been Rumble since he looked just like Frenzy, but had a different color to his plating. Dorothy bent down a bit and smiled a little awkwardly. “Frenzy is back at the Autobot base with Ratchet, their medic. Frenzy had contracted a techno-organic poison after someone tried to kidnap him from my house and Ratchet is currently finishing the antidote for it. Frenzy is just really sleepy and might not interact much when you see him since he’s been having a lot of medical grade energon.”

“The Autobots have him?” Ravage spoke up, sounding a little angered. “Why!? What did you do?!”

“Ravage, please…” Soundwave ordered his creation and Ravage stopped, sitting back down in his spot and listening to the female human. “Carry on, Ms. Haven.”

“Ms. Haven?” Dorothy almost laughed at that. “No one’s called me that in a while. There’s no need, Soundwave. I’m fine with Dorothy. Anyways, we should start moving before-”

The click of guns behind them all made them freeze and turned to see all of the men standing there with a gun of guns made to kill cybertronians. Soundwave protectively moved in front of all his creations and Dorothy swung around her sniper rifle from her back. He pressed the comm in her ear and sighed.  _ ::This is Dragon-One to OP. Phase one is complete. Phase two needs to start...like now.:: _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no! It's a cliffhanger! See ya next time!


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phase Two of the rescue plan is in action!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been gone for so long! Hope you enjoy!

_ ::This is Dragon-One to OP. Phase one is complete. Phase two need so start...like now.:: _

Barricade and Bee stood up from their spots when Optimus relayed the message to them. The two mechs looked towards the warehouses as guards started to form outside and gun shots could be heard from a little ways away. It worried Barricade that something must have happened after almost thirty minutes of silence from Ratbat and Dorothy. He watched all the guards form outside with guns and other weapons that didn’t look very recognizable. He wondered if they were actually manufacturing weapons that could kill cybertronians now. 

:: _ Barricade… _ :: Bee spoke up, cowering back a bit. :: _ They have restraint cables, Barricade...I don’t want to be… _ ::

Barricade sighed and walked over, hugging his boyfriend tightly to try and release some stress that was there. “Don’t worry, my little Bee. I won’t let anyone touch you."

Bee shyly smiled into Barricade’s chest and flushed a bit by the nickname he was giving. :: _ Don’t call me that. _ ::

“What? My little Bee~?” Barricade cooed, teasing with the Autobot scout. “Is it too much for you to handle~?”

The yellow and black Camaro groaned and giggled as he playfully punched the police car in the shoulder joint. Bee quickly hugged his lover before going back over to the treeline to wait for Optimus and Ironhide to make a diversion so they could seek around to Dorothy’s position. The humans out front seemed to be very confused, but still had guns and weapons that looked more on the scientific than realistic. This Ryder guy must be a really smart guy if he was making all over this stuff.

Suddenly, a bright red flare fired up in into the air and a GMC Topkick slid in front of the humans, honking loudly at them as a semi-truck followed. Barricade smiled and transformed, speeding off past the treeline and down the hill around the other side of the warehouse site. Bee transformed and followed, tailing behind him as they both sped off to where Dorothy last check in was. Her signal popped up on the radar when she commed Optimus so the two scouts were heading there to meet up with her and Soundwave.

Bee raced in front of Barricade as he swerved around the corner of another building, disappearing for a good second. The Camaro was excited, being that he was finally out in the field again. He had been constantly watching Sam when he was in school and didn’t seem to have time to visit base as much. He drove a little further down the dirt path to see a large garage door to a warehouse and sped up more towards it. He didn’t even hear Barricade tell him to slow down as he raced ahead.

Something heavy phased over Bumblebee and he went flying afterwards. His T-Cog seemed to have been activated and he transformed when he was still driving, launching him into the ground. The same thing happened to Barricade and he stumbled onto the ground face front. Bee landed on his back, groaning as his doorwings were being pressed down at a weird angle. He sat up, wondering what the heck just happened when something two cables pierced through his shoulder joints and dragged him backwards.

:: _ BARRICADE! _ :: The police pushed himself up onto his servos to see Bee calling for him as the two cables in his shoulders and now the two in his chest were making him kneel on the floor after he tried to stand up. The cables hummed a bit, which made Barricade freeze from standing up. :: _ Barricade, help me! Please! _ ::

The ex-con quickly pushed himself back on his pedes and raced towards his boyfriend, trying to make up the time he had lost moving so much. He knew Bee didn’t like those restraints and after that one conversation from Ryder about electric restraints, he was worried. He flinched a bit though as jet engines started to rumble in his audio receptors, making him question where the jet was. He turned forward again and saw that a black jet was flying at him. 

“Oh scr-!” Barricade didn’t get to finish his sentence as the jet’s underside collided with his front and knocked him backwards onto the ground and hovering over the ground. He groaned, quickly finding his pedes again and watched as the jet transformed into a cybertronian. Barricade transformed his servo into a blaster and scowled at the mech turned to face him. “Skywarp?”

The black jet with somewhat of a purple coloring smirked and stood proudly as he stared across at the police car. “Hey, Barricade! Long time no see, huh? How was Arizona?”

Barricade groaned, not wanting to deal with the Seeker’s jokes right now. “What the frag do you want? And what are you doing here in the first place? Wait...let me guess...you warped to the wrong place again.”

Skywarp gasped as he seemed offended by the statement. “No!...well, not this time! I’m actually here to kick your aft! And also capture the little human female that you work with.”

Barricade growled at the jet, taking a good step forwards and holding his blaster up in a offensive position. “I’d like to see you try to defeat me, ‘Warp. And don’t even think about touching Dorothy!”

The jet whined almost, his posture slagging as he appeared to complaining like a sparkling would. “But the human is so pretty! I see why all you Autobots like her so much. I told Screamer that I wanted to keep her as a pet back when he first went to try and kill you, but the Autobots showed up and he had to run.”

Barricade was very confused about the situation until another jet came out of nowhere and landed next to Skywarp, transforming and glaring at the other. “Skywarp, what are you doing?”

“I’m being Starscream.” the black jet answered to the navy one standing next to him. “You know, like how he talks too much before he fights people?”

The navy Seeker groaned and looked over at the on-guard police car aiming a blaster on him. “Hey, Barricade.”

“Hey, Thundercrack...so, we gonna fight or?” Barricade asked, not completely sure what was going on with the two trinemates coming to confront him. 

There was a thought in the back of his mind saying that Starscream was going to appeared and he didn’t really want to have another episode right now. They had gotten less thankfully, but his nightmares were still pretty vivid. Ratchet had offered to give him a sedative to help, but declined since he actually wanted to sleep. He would just go to Tranquility in California, since Dorothy had technically moving into the N.E.S.T. at this point and sleep with Bee.

“No, we’re here because we’re back-up for the humans. Also because Starscream is becoming very paranoid.” TC answered back. “He’s afraid Megatron’s gonna come back and murder him for being a coward and such so he wanted some weapons so that Megatron wouldn’t just get rid of him if that ever happened. He wanted Megatron to think he was worth something, which is also why he wanted to get rid of you. No offensive to Starscream, but Megatron would trust your and Soundwave’s word over his.”

Barricade wasn’t expecting that. Starscream was scared of Megatron coming back from the dead and that Megatron was going to kill him? Reasonably, everyone knew that Starscream was afraid of Megatron and anyone one would be afraid of Megatron coming to kill them personally. But tasking scientists, crazy scientist actually, to make weapons for him so that he could show Megatron that was wasn’t worthless? The police car thought that was probably a bit too extreme, but he couldn’t really ask any questions.

The two jets sighed and turned away, transforming to fly off again and back towards the main fight. Barricade stood there for a few moment, still trying to process what the navy-Seeker had said before racing over to Bee, who was still starting to panic more with the restraints. The police car knelt down and pulled at one of the restraints gently, stopping when Bee made a static noise from his vocoder and his radio went off randomly.

:: _ ’Cade, stop! That hurts! _ :: the mech cried, flinching as he felt something start to vibrate in his shoulders. He yelped as he shifted and electricity shocked some of the wires nearby the wounds. Bee suddenly became very panicked, but still at the same time. :: _ Barricade, it shocked me! I don’t want to be probed at again! Help me! _ ::

“I’m going to help you, Bee.” Barricade answered back, holding out his servos to try and calm the Autobot. “You just need to stop panicking so I can get the restraints out of your plating.”

The yellow and black mech froze, even if he was still terrified on the inside. :: _ O-Okay. _ ::

Barricade nodded and moved back to trying to remove the wires from Bumblebee’s plating. He started with the ones in his shoulder, carefully breaking the grappled tips with his digits and letting the wire slide out the other side of the hole it made. He did the other one and Bee fell forward since the ones in his chestplates were pulling him down to the ground. Barricade moved to lean the scout against his chassis and carefully removed the other ones. One of the wires shocked Bee again from the movement, but he kept still so the police car could help him.

Once the electric restraints were off of Bumblebee, the yellow and black youngling when into a full-blown sob. He was so scared and the memories from Sector Seven came rushing back to him suddenly. He leaned into Barricade’s chassis as he tried to forget and push away those memories. Barricade didn’t really know what to do, but just sat there with Bee as he tried to comfort him. As a former con, comfort wasn’t really a word in his vocabulary index. He didn’t really get any comfort until Dorothy came along and fixed him, physically and emotional.

Speaking of Dorothy, Barricade looked up to catch a very beautiful sight over by the warehouse that Dorothy was supposedly in. She was sitting on Soundwave’s shoulder as some of the men were getting tossed around by Ravage, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw. Ratbat was in her arms and Rumble was sitting on the human’s shoulders. They all made their way over quickly as possible and Barricade felt Bee hold onto him tighter.

“What happened?” Dorothy asked, sliding down Soundwave’s arm to his servo so she could drop to the ground. “Was there a defense measure?”

“Yeah. Electric restraint cables.” Barricade answered back, looking over Bee’s shoulder plating to see her. “Ryder apparently wasn’t kidding.”

Dorothy sighed, looking up at Bee and seeing how there were two holes in the back of his shoulder plating. “It’s gonna be okay. Ruder won’t be getting up for a while.”

Barricade furrowed his brows for a moment in confusion. “Wait, what do you mean? What happened?”

Dorothy smirked and lifted Ratbat up from her arms for Ravage to take. The panther took the metal bat in his mouth and walked back over to Soundwave. “I warned Ryder that he would lose a shoulder, and he did actually lose a shoulder.”

Barricade didn’t know if he should be scared of relieved by that, but he was glad that Ryder would be gone for a while. He looked over at Soundwave and smiled a bit. “Good to see you, Soundwave.”

The silver-plated communications officer looked over from where he was talking to Ravage and walked over. “You as well, Barricade. I see that you are not as dead as Starscream lead me to believe. I am also happy to hear that Frenzy is still alive.”

“Starscream told everyone I was dead?” Barricade asked. “Well, I actually was pretty dead.”

Dorothy chuckled and moved to over to see that Bee was still shaking, meaning that something was still scaring him. She gave a quick comm to Ironhide and Optimus that the mission was completely and to get out of there with Lennox and Epps. She motioned for Barricade to get moving as well and the police car nodded as she walked over to the others. “Let’s get out of here before Ryder finds us.”

Barricade helped Bee transform into his alt-mode before going over to talk with Soundwave. He watched the former TIC of the Decepticon carefully watch how Dorothy was reacting with his creations and smirked. “Frenzy and Ratbat call her carrier, you know.” he commented out of nowhere.

Soundwave looked back down at the ex-con and nodded. “I am aware of this. She seems like the carrier-type. I am happy that someone with such skill and kindness has been watching over my creations. Ratbat seems to be the most enthusiastic about her.”

“Have you ever thought about letting her baby-sit?” the police car asked, wondering what the former TIC thought about her. “She seems to be liked by the kids and she doesn’t work on the weekends now. I know you wouldn’t completely abandon the Decepticons, but if you want your creations to be safe, she’s your best bet.”

Soundwave watched Dorothy more and vented a bit, transforming into an alt-mode he scanned before he was captured, a Mercedes-Benz. “She is human, Barricade. I do not want the creations to get to attached to her is something were to happen. But I will think of the offer at a later time.” The silver car looked back over at the woman and vented again, knowing what he said was true. She was human and wouldn’t live as long as them. He ignored all the thoughts of happiness that had come from her saving them and went back to be real.

Soundwave could never have her, even if he tried.


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soundwave and his kids decide to have a sleepover with their favorite human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! I'm sorry for being absent, but my work and other stuff got in the way of writing, so I couldn't update. I'm back now, hopefully, and will be able to update some more chapters. Hope you enjoy!

“Sire, you need to stop hiding the fact that you have a liking towards Dorothy and just tell her already. Sitting in the corner and staring at her the entire time we’re here is not going to get you anywhere.”

Soundwave looked over at the cybertronian panther sitting next to him and looked away again back to Dorothy, who was currently on the catwalk with the others. The human female was helping Frenzy take his medical grade, since the antidote was still to be finished, while Ratbat was sitting on her shoulders. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw were sitting nearby on the railing and Rumble was sitting next to Frenzy. They all seemed a bit uneven, but happy that they weren’t in cages still. The only one really talking excessively was Ratbat. 

“Why are you trying to push this, Ravage?” the silver mech asked his creation. “She has no interest in me, from what I have observed, so I will keep my personal desires to myself.”

“Yeah, but sooner or later, she’s going to notice that you’re staring at her.” Ravage answered back, his tail whipping behind him. “At least you could try and be her friend, or something. She’s friends with Barricade, it shouldn’t be that hard.”

The former TIC nodded, looking back at the woman. If she were a cybertronian, many other factors would playing into the fact that she would be a beautiful femme, by Soundwave’s standards anyway. She wasn’t like other Earth females, who caked makeup over her face everyday to make themselves look better. She also had what most might of considered a male’s haircut, by the way it was styled. Dorothy never giggled, only chuckled at things that made her laugh, and even if her attitude at times could get out of hand, she always did it for his creations.

Soundwave smiled a bit to himself, breaking his usual monotone expression, and watched as Dorothy chatted amongst his creations. All of them seemed to be warming up to her, especially Ravage surprisingly. His creations were happy with her than when they were in the past. But as soon as the Decepticons planned to start up their main activities again, they couldn’t stay. That was the hard part. Dorothy wouldn’t be able to come with them. Megatron wouldn’t allow it and he didn’t want the woman to have to go through that.

“Cassette pile!!!!”

Soundwave looked up to see all of his creations, minus Ravage and Frenzy, tackle the human to the ground and pile up on top of her. There were a few yelps from the woman before she ended up laughing at them all. She was buried behind two birds, a small mechling and a rat, but it wasn’t bad until Soundwave saw the black panther get up from his spot and move up to the catwalk. He jumped up into the platform and curled up around them all, earning a few protests from the younger cassettes. 

“Soundwave! Control your children!” Dorothy cried out, struggling to escape from the dogpile she was trapping in by climbing up Ravage’s side. A hand shot up and pulled the rest of the human onto Ravage’s backside as she took a deep breath of air. She laid there for a couple of seconds before turning to look at Soundwave. “Your kids are trying to kill me!”

“They are just playing.” the former TIC answered back calmly, as if this was normal. “They will no bring harm to you.”

Dorothy swung herself over Ravage and landed on her feet, sighing in relief as she had escaped the monstrosity that they cassettes had conflicted. She gave a pair of icy daggers over to the mech and walked over to where her phone was sitting on the desk. She opened it to read a couple messages and smiled instantly at the text that her brother had sent her. “Ratbat, that’s a yes to our plan for the weekend!” she called back.

The little bat flew up to Ravage’s helm and seemed very excited. “Really?! Yes yes yes yes yes!!!”

Soundwave quirked a brow and watched as the two condors flew up to Ravage’s backside in the equal amount of excitement, Rumble getting a lift from Laserbeak. The silver mech decided to finally get up from his spot on the far side of the room and walk over. He looked down at the woman and tilt his helm in question. “What is Ratbat seemingly so excited about?”

“The kids wanted to sleep over at my house over the weekend and I had to make sure that my brother was going to be out of town for the weekend so that they could come over.” Dorothy explained long windedly as she smiled. “Of course, if that’s okay with you. They would have to be in their holo-avatars while there since my neighbors already think I’m crazy. I’ve seen Frenzy’s, but not the others. I assume they have them as well?”

Soundwave nodded. “They are equipped with them, although Ratbat has not been so practiced with it as the others. But in regards to my approval, I would wish to join you since I still do not trust you with all of my creations alone.” That was a lie. Of course he was okay with it, but he was trying to play off that he wasn’t currently adoring the human with all of his spark.

“That’s fine with me.” Dorothy answered back, giving a gesture of compliance. “I have some extra mattresses at home, but I’ll need to get some extra food from the grocery store to accommodate for you all. Anyways, I’m going to catch a ride home with Barricade since he’s going to drop me off before spending the weekend in Tranquility with Sam and Witwickys.”

“Is there an ETA I should have knowledge of?” the silver mech asked as the woman started to make her way down the catwalk stairs. 

“Yeah, come around 5 p.m. so I can start dinner.” she answered and made her way to the front of the warehouse as Barricade pulled up with the usual yellow and black Camaro at his side. “See you then!”

“Bye Dorothy!” all of the cassettes shouted in unison as the woman hopped in the driver’s side of the police car and drove away.

Soundwave smiled a bit as he began to imagine the weekend ahead for them. Ravage snickered and nudged his sire with his tail. “So that worked out better than planned, huh? A whole weekend with human of your dreams.” Soundwave glared at the panther, but nodded in agreement.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

5 o’clock came up faster than expected. Dorothy had arrived back home with all of her groceries at around three, which only left her about two hours to get dinner ready for seven people. It’s wasn’t that bad, since she usually did that for family holidays, but six children ate a lot. She just wanted to be prepared for it. And since they were all probably coming in their holo-avatars, then she would have to make food that all of them liked, which was hard since they weren’t human.

At least she knew what Frenzy ate and could reference that off onto the others. The woman spend the next two hours making dinner, which consisted of pasta and other things. She also had to situate where everyone else was going to sleep. She had three extra mattresses and one pull out bed from the couch, which she would have to move the coffee table. Soundwave would probably sleep on one of the mattresses with some of the kids.

Around five, the doorbell rang and Darren was near the front door. “Darren, can you get the door for me?! I’m kinda busy!” Dorothy yelled from the kitchen as she was finishing up with dinner. 

“Um...sure.” he answered back and opened it to seven people, one adult and six kids. He was a little taken back by the amount of people his sister was having over, but she seemed to make friends everywhere. “You must be here for Dorothy, right?”

The oldest of the kids, one with short, shaggy black hair and black leather clothing on, spoke up first. “Yeah, and you must be her older brother, right?”

“Yeah.” was all the Darren answered back before Dorothy came bursting into view and the youngest kids ran past the man at the door to tackle her.

Dorothy was taken down by a five year-old and two seven year-olds. He was on her back with the three kids climbing on top of her and hugging her to death. “Hey guys! You ready for the sleepover?”

Everyone else stepped in the room and Darren decided it was his time to leave. He grabbed his keys from the hook on the front door and walked out the door calling, “Don’t burn the house down!”

Dorothy laughed and sat up, waving to her brother. “No promises!”

Soundwave closed the door behind Darren and watched as the kids swarmed the woman. Ravage moved in to help Dorothy to her feet and helped support her as the kids hugged around her legs. The tall male with silver-blonde hair and reddish eyes walked over to try and corral the kids. “Frenzy, Rumble, Ratbat: Desist.”

The twins giggled, but moved away from Dorothy so she could stand up. Unfortunately, Ratbat didn’t want to move. The woman didn’t fight with the child and stood up away with Ratbat clinging to her front with his arms around her neck. She chuckled and rustled the child’s dark brunette hair, wrapping her arms underneath him to support the child. “So, welcome to my house.” Dorothy started with.

Soundwave nodded and looked down at the two pairs of twins. Frenzy was starting to feel better, meaning he could run around with Rumble and not feel sick afterwards. He was happy that his creations were happy with the woman, since he was still having trouble communicating with her outside of a formal tone. “Thank you, Dorothy.” the mech answered in a reply.

“It’s not problem.” she reassured Soundwave. “And you can relax. I can see that you’re still really tense.” Dorothy chuckled as she saw Ravage smirk at his creator. The woman sighed, hugging Ratbat to her chest as she walked towards the kitchen. The dark haired child was giggling as he watched his siblings follow behind her, like a mother duck and her ducklings.

“Ms. Dorothy!” Laserbeak called out from behind her, standing with her twin as the two girls ran to sit at the kitchen table. “Why does Frenzy and Ratbat call you ‘carrier’?”

“Yeah, it doesn’t make sense.” Buzzsaw called out as well. “You’re not our carrier by energon and you’re not a cybertronian.”

Dorothy sat Ratbat down in a booster seat as she went to grab at pasta off of the stove, looking back at the two twins. “I don’t know. Multiple people have told me I’ve very mother-like. And it doesn’t matter what your species is or if it’s by blood. Anyone can be a mother, Buzz.”

Ratbat nodded his head and giggled, clapping his hands in excitement. “Dorothy the best carrier! Better than other femmes. Better than all the femmes!”

Frenzy nodded in agreement as he walked over to sit next to his youngest sibling. Rumble was with him and helping him, since the medical grade energon only helped to ease the pain and not take away the illness. The silver and bronze twins sat next to Ratbat and the two other twins sitting with them. Dorothy had to bring in more chairs from the other room since she didn’t have enough for all of them.

Finally, Soundwave sat when Dorothy brought over the pasta. She had some with cheese and butter mixed in and another with red sauce. He placed the two bowls down on the table and passed out places for each of the kids, them being plastic so they wouldn’t break if they accidently fell off the table.  She sat down herself next to Soundwave and helped serve the kids what pasta they wanted. 

Frenzy liked the red sauce, remembering the night he had pasta here with Barricade and Dorothy. He held his plate out for the woman to help get the pasta onto his plates. The others, including Soundwave, didn’t know what to do. Frenzy was the only one who has eaten human food out of them. Ravage looked at the pasta and sighed, deciding that he should probably be the first to go. “I’ll have the pasta with the red stuff on it.” he asked.

“The marinara sauce? Sure.” Dorothy obliged, taking Ravage’s plate and giving his a half portion, just in cause he didn’t like it. “It’s okay if you don't like it. I have plain pasta over on the counter and butter and parmesan cheese in the other bowl.”

Ravage gulped silently as he took his fork and tried to pick up some of the pasta, but had some trouble doing so. Dorothy chuckled and took his fork, twirling the pasta onto the fork and handing it back. The teen looked at everyone else, who was staring back, except for Frenzy who was eating his pasta like he had been doing this for years. Ravage was very suspicious of the woman, having only met a couple of

The oldest sibling sighed and placed the pasta in his mouth, freezing for a minute before smiling. “This is really good! Better than energon even!” He twirled more pasta onto his fork and started eating some more, joining his younger sibling in eating the food that Dorothy had prepared. 

The table soon uproared with the other creations asking for pasta, Ratbat actually trying to grab at the bowl with the butter and cheese in it. Soundwave was shocked, becoming embarrassed at the way his children were acting. He was going to scold them, but a hand was placing on his shoulder before he could get up. He looked over to see Dorothy smiling at them, then glancing at him. “Let them have some fun, Soundwave. It’s not like they’re causing any harm.”

Soundwave stared for a moment before deciding to serve himself some pasta for himself, choosing the pasta with marinara sauce like Frenzy and Ravage did. Rumble, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw choose the pasta with butter and parmesan cheese, while Ratbat didn’t want anything on his pasta and Dorothy went to get the plain for him. The rest of dinner went along quietly as everyone ate their food and brought up stories about Cybertron. Soundwave would sometimes look at Dorothy for a while, just studying her face until Ravage sent a pulse through the bond, making the mech look back to his food.

After dinner was over, everyone pitched in with helping wash the dishes, even if Dorothy insisted they didn’t need to. Soundwave let Ratbat sit on the counter and watch as his brothers and sisters helped clean the dishes. Ravage was washing the plates, flinching every time the water touched him. He didn’t like water that much, being similar to a house cat than to a panther. Rumble and Frenzy were drying off the dishes, even though Rumble was doing most of them to help Frenzy out, and the other pair of twins were putting the dishes away in the cabinets. Soundwave was standing to the side as Dorothy watched from beside the sink counter to make sure none of the kids fell.

Ratbat was being to get antsy now. He wanted to help as well, but his sire had told him to watch. The little child stood up on the counter and tried to get down from it, but with his form more fragile than his usual one, he forgot how easy it was to get hurt. He tried turning around and sliding off, but his knee slipped on the wet counter and he banged his forehead on the edge before falling off backwards.

Soundwave felt the pain before he saw what had happened, wincing at the sudden pain in his forehead. He turned to see Ratbat fall, but completely froze for way too long to grab at his creation before he fell. Dorothy, standing closer, heard the sound of Ratbat hitting his head and quickly reacted to the little child falling off the counter. She grabbed him and pulled him towards her chest before falling to the ground under him so he wouldn’t hit the tile. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look, all panicked.

The human groaned as she laid there for a few moments. She blinked a couple of times before sitting up and rubbing her back with one hand. “That...hurt more than I thought it would. Ow.” she groaned, pain in her voice. She looked down at the little dark haired child in her arms and panicked when she noticed the cut on his forehead from where the edge of the counter had ripped his skin. He was crying into her shirt and kneading the fabric in his hands. 

Soundwave moved forward as the woman stood up with his creation. He looked at him and worried when he saw the cut. He wanted to take his child from the human and become protective, but hesitated as she got out a white box with a red cross on it from one of the cabinets on floor level. He could feel Ratbat’s scared emotions through the bond and the rest of his creations’ worried feelings. He sent a feeling for his creations to let the human do her work, since she seemed to know how to deal with this.

Ratbat was sat on the counter, crying still and trying to cling onto Dorothy’s shirt. The woman got the little boy to hold into her hand instead, since she could work without having one hand instead of her shirt. Putting the box on the counter, she opened it up and pulled out some disinfectant and a patch bandage. “Ratbat, I’m going to need you to close your eyes for a moment, okay?” she asked calmly, trying to keep the child calm. “This might sting a bit.”

The little child nodded and closed his eyes, squeezing them shut as his sniffled and hiccuped from his crying. The woman sprayed on the disinfectant and the little boy flinched back, his cut stinging from the spray. He opened his eyes after it was over and rubbed his eyes with his free hand as he squeezed Dorothy’s tighter. “It hurts, carrier! It hurts!”

“I know, Ratbat. It’s almost over.” she reassured the youngest of Soundwave’s children as she put the bandage over the cut. She leaned back and made sure it was on smooth. She smiled and kissed the little boy on the cheek, wiping away his tears. “It’s done, Ratbat. It’s okay. It’s over.”

Soundwave let his tense body relax as his creation stopped crying and was picked up by Dorothy. She held him in her arms as she walked over to Soundwave, leaning against the counter again. The man didn’t know what to say to her, becoming silent as her stared into her hazel eyes for a while. She stared back, more confused, but she was more focused on keeping the child in her arms relaxed than anything else. Soundwave finally snapped out of his when Ravage coughed in the background. “...Thank you, Dorothy.”

“Hm? Oh, you’re welcome.” she replied as she looked back down at the tired creation in her arms, him slowly starting to nod off into sleep. She chuckled as she messed with his hair. “I think it’s time from them to sleep. All of us, probably.”

The man nodded in agreement as she directed his creations to the living room as Dorothy carried Ratbat next to him. The three extra mattresses and the pull-out couch were all set with pillows, blankets and Frenzy and Ratbat’s plushies. Frenzy became giddy and ran to his Pikachu plushie on the first mattress, his brother joining him there. The two girls decided they didn’t want to sleep with Ravage or the others and when to commandeer the second mattress, Ravage taking the third one. All the kids climbed under the covers and blankets and cuddled on their pillows quietly, presumily falling asleep.

That left Dorothy, who was already in her idea of sleepwear, Soundwave and Ratbat to share the pull-out couch. Soundwave was hesitate, having only shared his berth with intimate cybertronians and his creations before. Dorothy didn’t seem to mind as she took herself and the little child in her arms over so Ratbat could get in with his Zubat plushie. The little child climbed in and hugged his plushie, sitting up and much happier.

“Sire, come sleep!” the little child called, bouncing a bit on the bed.

Soundwave sighed, realizing that he couldn’t avoid this and walked over. He climbed into bed with his creation and settled himself on one side of the bed as Dorothy climbed in on the other. Ratbat was in between and squealed with happiness as he snuggled into the blankets. The woman chuckled and kissed him on the forehead, avoiding the bandage. The silver-haired male smiled, loving how his creations were happy with Dorothy as much as he wanted to be. 

“You know, Soundwave,” the woman spoke out loud. “I don’t see why the Autobots don’t like you. You’re such a caring person and love your kids. They’re all happy and curious about everything. I think Ravage is even breaking out of his shell a little bit.”

“Don’t push it.” the panther’s voice called, a form shifting under the blankets as he argued with the statement made.

Dorothy chuckled and looked at Ratbat, who had passed out against his pillow with his plushie in his hands. He was teething on the ear of the Zubat and hugging it. She smiled and nuzzled him, earning a giggled back as his other hand reached out to grab her nose. The woman chuckled again and sighed, closing her eyes to go to sleep. “Goodnight, Soundwave.” she called out before falling asleep next to the child.

Soundwave looked at his creation as Ratbat squirmed forward and cuddled up against Dorothy’s chest, grabbing at her shirt again. The male sighed, turning and stared up at the ceiling. His spark was giving out so much mixed emotions about this woman. She was beautiful, motherly, his children loved her and she was able to make anyone happy if she tried. The woman had a way with getting people to listen with her, but could also be calm and caring as well. He couldn’t tell that he was blushing at the moment, or had been since he watched her patch up his creation.

The cybertronian sighed as he moved in a little closer to the woman. He moved his arms to hover over the sleeping woman, but stopped and recoiled it. He wasn’t ready for that and didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. He just stared until recharge took him into his own dreams of happiness.


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy has a mental breakdown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Sounwave woke up with someone shaking his side and trying to wake him desperately.

He opened his eyes and remembered that he was still at Dorothy’s house. He looked over at the clock displayed on the TV box and saw it was 2:45 in the morning and no one should be up at this hour. He wondered if it was Dorothy, since she seemed to never sleep at all, but remembered that she had fallen asleep with Ratbat against her chest and passed out. He smiled, remembering how happy he was to that, but that thought broke as he heard whimpering behind him.

The silver haired male looked over his shoulder to see Ratbat was shaking him, glancing behind him every once and awhile. He groaned, sitting up and having to leave his comfortable position. “What is it, Ratbat?” he asked quietly. “It’s very early in the morning and you should be asleep.”

“Carrier crying.” he responding, looking behind him again at where Dorothy was sleeping, kinda. “She shaking and making weird noises.”

That threw Soundwave into a brick wall as he quickly looked over to examine the shaking and hiccuping blanket next to him. Was that really Dorothy? Crying didn’t seem like a normal action of hers, but he didn’t care since he wanted to make sure she was alright. Ratbat crawled back over across the bed and tried to climb back into the woman’s arms, which were hidden under the blanket. Soundwave watched as his youngest creation nuzzled her and tried to help her calm down from whatever she was suffering from.

The mech finally decided to do something, since he was still in his holo-avatars like the rest of his children. He scooted over and lightly tried to wake her, rubbing her shoulder as he was trying to remember things he would use to calm down Ratbat or Rumble. He sat on his knees, being patient and waited for her to wake up. “Dorothy?” he called out, quietly as he didn’t want to wake the others in the room. “Dorothy, wake up please.”

That didn’t seem to work as she curled up tighter around Ratbat and more tears fell from behind her closed eyes. This was hurting the mech to see his friend like this, physically and mentally. He wanted to help her, but didn’t know how to when she was still asleep. He looked at his creation and sighed, not knowing what to do. The little boy nodded back and scooted up towards the woman’s face, nuzzling it for a bit. “Carrier, wake up.” he asked quietly. “Carrier, please. I need you.”

Dorothy shifted, her face scrunching up before she turned a bit and rolled onto her back. She re-wrapped her arms around Ratbat and hugged him to her chest. “No...not Ratbat…” she muttered with a broken voice, showing how much he had been crying.

Ratbat looked at his carrier and started clapping his hands of her cheeks, having pulled his arms out of her arms. After a few minutes, the woman started coughing. Ratbat flinched and got worried. He snuggled with his face in her neck as he looked at his creator. “Sire, help her.” he cried, starting to get emotional worried.

Soundwave nodded and tried shaking her awake again to no prevail. He moved the sleeping woman so she was sitting against his side and rubbed her back slowly as she seemed to start waking up into reality. Little did Soundwave know, he did the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do. The woman panicked, seeming to not remember where she was or who with and jabbed her elbow into the man’s stomach and placed down the child in her arms. She tackled him and grabbed the man around the neck, trying to get him to stop struggling against her.

“Who are you and what the heck are you doing in my house?!” she questioned loudly, reverting back into her police officer attitude. 

The rest of the kids were awake now, Ravage being the most disoriented out of all of them. They all looked up at the bed and froze at the sight of Dorothy choking Soundwave, aggression growing in them. Only Frenzy knew what was really going on and was trying to keep his oldest sibling from getting up to maul her. Ratbat seemed to get the same idea and got up walking over on the mattress to stand in front of Dorothy.

“Carrier, stop choking Sire! It okay!” he cried up, trying to tug her hands off of his creators. “Please! Carrier, stop it!”

Dorothy looked to the kid standing there and something clicked in her head. Her grip loosened and Soundwave took in a breath of air, coughing a bit. She stared at Ratbat for a moment before taking him into her arms and hugging him. “Ratbat, you’re okay! You’re...I’m so sorry.” she replied, apologizing for something everyone else didn’t know about.

Soundwave sat back up and watched as Ratbat hugged the woman, like nothing had ever happened. The child nuzzled her and giggled, getting Dorothy to laugh with him even if tears were still falling. He looked at his children to see the rest of them were awake and really confused. “Dorothy, why are you crying?” he asked sternly, disturbing the hugging session between her and his creation.

“Crying?” she asked, looking up and feeling under her eyes before looking back at Soundwave with false surprise. “Oh, I didn’t even realize. Heh...so yeah.”

“Dorothy.” Soundwave stated again, knowing that the woman was hiding something from them. “What’s wrong? Ratbat was concerned for your wellbeing when you were sleeping-”

“You were watching me sleep?” she interrupted, not mad but maybe a little creeped out by it. “That’s not creepy at all.”

“Dorothy, what are you hiding?” he asked again, being more forward with his question. “You woke up due to some sort of shock and myself and Ratbat are concerned for your mental health. You seemed to be keeping something from us and I can understand, but if it’s causing you this much pain, then I would like to help.”

The human didn’t answer back for a while, just staring at him and debating something. She looked down at Ratbat in her arms and combed a hand through his fluffy black hair. Everyone else was staring at her and Ratbat was giving her a degree of puppy eyes. She became very closed up and quiet, which was uncharacteristic for her. “I’m fine.” she answered back, not making eye contact with anyone.

“You are clearly not.” Soundwave answered back, his voice becoming louder in his constant tone.

“I’m fine, Soundwave.” she argued back. The woman rubbed Ratbat’s cheeks and got him to giggle as she smiled falsely back. “I’ve always been fine. I’ve got Barricade, the kids, you...but you shouldn’t worry about me. I’ll always be fine.”

Soundwave glared a bit and started detecting the amount of lying she was doing to hide whatever she was hiding from them. “You keep repeating yourself, Dorothy. Tell us what is wrong so we may help you.”

“You can’t help me with my problem.” she muttered under her breath, not thinking Soundwave or Ratbat would hear it. “I just have to suffer through it.”

“Carrier don’t need to suffer.” the little child in the woman’s arms chimed in, pressing his hands against hers as he tried to get her to be happy. “Want Carrier to be happy. Wanna help Carrier.”

Dorothy felt a wave of guilt hit her and it hurt in her chest. She could feel the burning in her eyes, meaning that more tears were coming. She could feel her chest start to hurt as her mind focused on all the ways that they might scold her after this. She could feel the kids looking at her, Soundwave looking at her, and she hated it. She always hated when people looked. But there was no escaping it now, not since she started crying and Ratbat had made her cry more.

She bent forward more, hugging the kid and starting to sniff and shake as she felt all of her pent up emotions hit her at once. Emotions she has pented-up since she was younger and a lot of her walls started to fall, started to crumble beneath her. Tears fell and hit the bed covers under her and her vision blurred with salty tears. She didn’t want to be crying, but her body needed her to release all this pent up aggression somehow. Dorothy felt Ratbat whimpered from in her arms and wrap his arms around her chest as he tried to hug back.

Then the bed sunk with motion. Soundwave moved forward, pulling Dorothy into his lap and wrapping his legs around hers. He hugged her and ran a hand through her hand she see started bawling out. Ravage and the two pairs of twins got up from their beds and moved up onto the couch bed to form a huddle around their creator and the woman. The teen hugged her from behind as Laserbeak and Buzzsaw hugged her from the sides. Rumble sat with Soundwave as Frenzy climbed in between to hug her chest with Ratbat. They all hugged her and Dorothy became so overwhelmed that she started breaking down even more.

It was ten minutes later when Dorothy finally went silent and her crying session was over. Everyone was still hugging her and huddling around her as she finally calmed down and she slumped forward against Soundwave’s chest. The woman had cried herself to tiredness and was loosely holding Frenzy and Ratbat. She hiccupped every once and awhile, but was mostly come from her emotion attack.

“Is Carrier better now?” Ratbat asked, the first one to speak since the human had her breakdown.

“...Y-Yeah, bud.” Dorothy answered back, her voice raw and cracked. “I-I’m good now. Thank you.”

Soundwave was suffering himself from a mixture of protective parent mode and completely joy and happiness that he was hugging Dorothy right now. He looked down at the woman and continued to run his hand through her short, fluffy hair. He found little flecks of dandruff in the black sea of her hair, but just moved it away. “You want to talk about it now.”

Dorothy shifted a bit before nodded against his chest, sighing deeply as she closed her eyes again. “Ryder...it’s Ryder.”

Soundwave’s entire body tensed, the name striking a nerve with the mech as he looked at his creations with an angry look. “What does Ryder have to do with you? I remember you too had some history, but it was never specified.” he answered back, trying to keep himself from growling.

“We used to date.” Dorothy explained, her voice quiet with memory. “We met during my junior year of high school. I lived back in Pennsylvania at that point and I still didn’t know what it was like to date anyone. I’d seen it on TV and in movies, so it didn’t seem that hard, but then Ryder entered my life and everything went to hell.”

Ravage growled, laying his face down on the woman’s back. “Pitspawn deserves to die in a hole.”

Dorothy laughed a bit, a little broken still. “You can say that again. Anyways, I dated him for a year and a half. We graduated together, but in that time I regret every decision I made. He never did anything for me, he would go out with friends and party instead of spending time with me. He even would lock me out of his house when he was working on projects for his internship with Sector Seven. I felt so useless and like I wasn’t worth anything, but I hoped that he would come around and be there for me. But that never happened.”

Soundwave nodded, still playing with the woman’s hair. “He did not deserve you. All of the partners that helped me make my creations all left me once they found out about who I was. Even if they stayed, I was worried that would harm them and take them away from me.”

Dorothy looked up from his chest and smiled with tired eyes. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t imagine having to lose the partner that helped you bring such wonderful children into the world.”

The silver-haired male smiled at that, his expression becoming calm and less rage filled. He wiped the tears that still hang on her face off and hugged her more. “Continue. You still haven’t told all of the story.”

The woman nodded, relaxing in the cybertronian’s arms. “After highschool, I was planning on moving to Arizona to stay here with my brother since a police training college was here. I told my family and they were ecstatic for me. Ryder wasn’t so much, since that meant he would be in a long term relationship with me. He still acted happy around me, but I knew he wasn’t. Thankfully, he never abused me during our relationship, or I would have arrested him by now.”

“You should arrest him anyway.” Laserbeak mentioned, Buzz nodding in agreement with her sister.

The human smiled, letting another laugh escape from her before she sunk back into her sad tone. “We went on a drive to the place where he was getting his internship. I was sleeping in the passenger seat, but I woke up became something wasn’t right. Then there was the truck and the car flipping and the fire and everything was just-!” She stopped herself before she got herself too worked up again. She was shaking a bit as she raised a hand to her face to try and cover up how much she was crying.

Soundwave hugged her tighter as she went silent, the rest of his creation doing the same. He waited it out, helping her to calm her emotions and let them good. He would do the same for Ravage whenever he would get too worked up about fighting, or more expectantly whenever he would lose a fight. Currently, the panther was playing the other role where he was doing the comforting. Ratbat and Frenzy seemed to be the best at helping to calm her emotions, having been with her the longest out of all of them.

“Carrier’s a good person.” Frenzy commented, hugging the woman’s stomach. “Carrier take care of us even when we the bad guys.”

“No, Frenzy. You’re not the bad guys.” Dorothy spoke up, her voice faded in the end. “You’re wonderful, wonderful children that are sweet and caring. You have a wonderful sire as well, showing you that even if the world might be the worst, there’s still some light...I love you guys so much and I don’t want Ryder to hurt you again.”

Soundwave’s face exploded in red, severally caught off guard by the compliments. It also didn’t help that Ravage was staring at him. The teen smirked before putting his head back down to hug Dorothy in thanks. “I...appreciate your statement, but you must not worry about us. We are well equipped to handle ourselves in battle.”

“Not if it’s Ryder. He’ll just electrocute you like last time. I’m not going to lose you all just because that jerk can’t get over the fact that I broke up with him! He landed me in the hospital for two weeks after that crash and he expected me to just forgive him after he left me in that car!” Her voice exploded as yelled at nothing, before calming herself on her own. She took a few deep breaths before coughing a bit. She sat up from her slouching position and sniffed a bit as she rubbed her face. “Thanks. I need that...this.”

Soundwave smiled as he let her go, slowly though since he didn’t want to let her go at all. He had a dreamy look in his eyes as he was staring at her, studying her features again. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long as the kid tackled her back down into the berth, surrounding her and cuddling together. Ratbat and Frenzy curled up against her chest as Ravage let Rumble lay between her and him. The two twins decided they didn’t want to be apart of this and went back to their mattress. Dorothy chuckled as she slowly stretched, looking back at the clock as it read out 3:00 am.

The silver-haired male laid down next to the pile of bodies and wrapped his arm around to hold Dorothy closer. Everyone giggled as the two adults just stared at each other for a while as the others feel asleep. Finally, Dorothy leaned over the two children and left a small kiss on Soundwave's cheek. “Thank you.” she said before falling asleep.

Soundwave had officially stopped working at that point and glitched a bit.


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ~Can you feel the love tonight?~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Dorothy woke up the next morning with Soundwave laying on top of her, which meant the mech had shifted during the night from being beside her. It also took Dorothy a moment to realize she wasn’t breathing.

Her eyes went wide and started hitting Soundwave in the arm, trying to get the guy to move off of her, but the mech was locked in recharge like a rock. She slapped his shoulder again and growled, starting to run out of air from the way his back was crushing her chest. “Soundwave!...Get...your big aft...off of me!” she yelled, trying to wake him up even more than the hitting was working.

The man with the silver hair stirred a bit, squinting at first from the amount of light coming in from the outside from the back wall made of windows in the living room. He stretched a bit, crushing the human under him even more and made her squeak as he hear something crack, hopeful it was just a joint in her back. “What…” he asked to no one, still trying to figure out what was under him.

Dorothy finally had enough and pushed the heavy male off of her body and off the side of the pull out couch bed. She sat up immediately and took in a deep breath of air, coughing a bit as the air rushed to her lungs a little too fast. She panted, taking in as much air as she could before calming down and feeling her ribs to make sure none of them were cracked. Luckily, it had just been her back joints cracking from the awkward position she was sleeping in last night and she sighed in relief, laying back down on the bed.

There was a small groan from over the top of the bed, making the woman sit up again. She scooted over and winced, seeing that she had pushed Soundwave off onto a pile of books that she had forgotten to move. “Ooh...sorry about that.” she said awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head as she tried to look apologetic. “You okay, Soundwave?”

The mech pushed himself off of the ground and looked at her, glaring a bit before relaxing while he sat on the ground. He touched his lip and saw that he had spilt it when it hit the floor. “Other than me leaking energon, yes, I am fine.”

Dorothy’s eyes went wide again as she slid off the bed and looked as his lip, tilting it up a bit as she knelt down to match the mech’s height. She rubbed it, getting a pained reaction from Soundwave and nodded to herself. She reached up blindly to the coffee table, it moved in front of one of the chairs next to the couch, and grabbed a tissue. The woman ripped off a piece and put it over the cut, letting the energon stick to it and help it cast over the wound. She leaned back and smiled at Soundwave, not remembering a lot from the previous night yet.

“So...I hope you enjoyed staying over last night.” she stated awkwardly, rubbing her arms a bit. “I know the kids certainly enjoyed it, except for the part where Ratbat hit his head on the counter. He should be better now.”

“Yes, right.” Soundwave answered back, his mind wandering back to the small kiss the woman gave him on his cheek last night. He was smiling giddily and he seemed much more relaxed than usual. “I enjoyed last night quite a lot. I was...surprised by your...um...gesture of affection.”

“What?” she asked, not remembering anything but sadness and tears. “What do you mean, Soundwave? What did we do...oh, please tell me I didn’t do something stupid.” Her entire face blushed a bit when her mind wandered a bit too far.

“No, no! You didn’t advance on me, if that is want you are thinking!” he reassured. “After you told us about Ryder, we all feel asleep together on the bed and you...kissed me…”

“I...I k-kissed you?!” she yelled, seeming panicked as she automatically covered her face with her hands and hid herself within her knees. She curled up next to the pull out bed and started to shaking, the thought of kissing someone bringing up some bad memories and the ones from last night. “I-I’m so sorry! My head wasn’t in the right place last night after my breakdown!”

Soundwave looked at her a little worryingly, but scooted forward to rest his hands on her shoulders. “No, it’s okay. It wasn’t your fault. Please don’t feel ashamed. You were so good and open last night, like you always were, but I don’t understand why you are so afraid of something as innocent as a kiss. Help me understand.”

Dorothy looked up at him for a moment, before breaking out of the shell she made herself and leaning up against him like she had done last night. “After Ryder, I had sworn to myself that I would never do anything that involved affection towards others again. Hugs I’m okay with, but kissing reminds me of my relationship and what I could have had...I kinda broke my track record.”

“Why? Ryder is not here, so your relationship should be in the past.” the male counseled. “He won’t hurt you here. It’s your house and you’re allowed to do anything you want in your own house, right?”

Dorothy looked up at him and looked back down at her lap, nodding in agreement. “I’m never going to find anyone worth wild on this goddamn planet...humans are idiots.” she muttered, trying to make herself forget everything that happened last night.

Soundwave heard what she said and smiled a bit, finding himself an opportunity that would make Ravage eat his words about never being able to be with Dorothy. He carefully leaned down and leaned his head against hers, moving on hand to rub her back as he sat with her for a while. “Well...maybe not on this planet. But I know someone from another who has caught your eye.”

Dorothy seemed to be in a mix of panic and surprise on that statement. “What?! Who in their right mind would want to date me?! I’m too aggressive and loud and I shoot at anyone who pisses me off! How in the world is someone ever going to love me?!”

“Dorothy, please let me explain.” Soundwave said, lifting his head up and moving his hands to wrap around the woman sitting with him on the floor. He didn’t know why the human was doubting herself so much, since he thought she was perfect. “Someone will love you for who you are. You just need to find the right person.”

“I’ve tried to find the right person, Soundwave!” Dorothy shook her head, trying to stop from crying her eyes out again. “Five years and I still haven’t found anyone who treats me differently from Ryder! One date was all it took for me to see that they only loved me because it gave them some kind of advantage! Either it was because I was a young, nice looking girl, or because I was smart and could do someone’s college essay in two hours! No one ever liked me for me and no matter how many one-night dates I was on, I could always tell what their motives were before the check came! I have no one!”

Soundwave watched the woman breakdown into tears again like she had last night and wondered if all men on Earth were stupid. They probably were and all they wanted was the primal urge to make offspring. He rubbed her hands and held them, waiting out her waterfall of tears and sitting there with her. He watched her whimper and shake, as if she was a wounded animal. She technically was at this point. He never realized until now how much Dorothy had opened herself back up as a caring person since she had meet Barricade and his creations. He was so used to being in a shell that she’s never broken out of it.

“I think you’re perfect.” the mech finally admitted, squeezing her hands. “I think you’re kind and a very caring person on the inside that many people don’t see. You’re aggressive while trying to protect the people you care for and you’re loud to make your point when no one else will listen. You love what you do as a profession and even when the odds are impossible to beat, you still try to push those odds so you can succeed. All of the humans you’ve dated have only seen you for what you put out in the world, but I’ve seen who you are inside. And...I love you because of it.”

Dorothy was completely frozen when Soundwave was finished with his statement. She was just staring at him with this glow in her eyes and a flush across her face. He was trying to figure out if she was in shock because of happiness, or because of just plain shock. He pressed his hand to her face and tilted it so she could look at him and snap out of it. The woman just kept staring and Soundwave thought that he had done something wrong. He looked down at his own lap and clenched his hand up against the carpet, knowing he screwed up.

Suddenly, a small hand lifted his chin up and Dorothy looked at him with a smile on her face. Her hazel eyes were glimmering with happiness and joy and Soundwave didn’t seem to recognize it as the woman he had fell in love with until she chuckled. “I...I don’t want to say to that. I honestly don’t think I would ever be able to top that.”

Soundwave smiled back. “I don’t think you need to. You taking care of my creations is enough to show me how much you care.”

Dorothy’s smile grew as she moved the mech closer, pulling him forward so that they topple over on each other. Soundwave had to hold his hands out to make sure he didn’t crush the woman under him like he had done prior, placing his arms out so that they were surrounding her shoulders. She crossed her arms over her crest as she gasped on purpose. “Oh no. I seem to have knocked us over and a very inconvenient position. What very shall we do?” she mocked at him, smirking a bit as she rolled her eyes.

The mech froze up, not knowing if she was being serious about her knocking them over, or if she was playing him. “I-I d-don’t...D-Dorothy, w-what…” he stuttered, trying to find the right words to say to her as a larger blush grew.

“Oh come here, you big nerd.” she scolded, pulling the male all the way do so she could reach his face and give him a present of sorts. Lips touched lips and sooner than Soundwave knew it, they were kissing. Soundwave didn’t know what to do, since Dorothy seemed to hate the idea of it before. But...maybe she had found the right man, or mech in this case, causing Soundwave to kiss her back and relax into it. 

There were on the floor for a good few minutes, just kissing and hugging each other. The two of them were extremely touch starved, aside from the interactions they had with the kids. They were enjoying themselves to say the least, but soon that changed when something was off about the house. Dorothy was the first to break away, taking in a bit of air and panting for a bit. Soundwave was a little too happy with himself to notice that Dorothy was cringing for some reason.

“...do you smell smoke?” she asked, pushing herself out from under Soundwave and standing up. She saw that all the kids were not in their beds and the smell was going from the kitchen. The woman immediately started panicking and raced for the kitchen, dragging Soundwave along with her. The two of them vaulted over the couch and skidded to the entryway of the kitchen, shock and panic laced in their eyes.

All of the kids were there around the stove, trying to cook breakfast. Ratbat was covered in floor, Frenzy and Rumble were covered in egg, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw were hanging off the counter and Ravage was trying to douse the burning pan in the sink before it caught the rest of the house on fire. When the two adults walked in, all of them turned around to look at them, a nervous smile on every face except on Ratbat, who was coughing floor. He giggled as he saw Dorothy and Soundwave in the entryway. 

“Surprise!” he yelled, putting his arms up in the air with a smile on his face. The rest of the creations cringed physically.

Soundwave was about to say something when Dorothy put her arm out in front of him, showing him she had a plan brewing in her head. “I’ll take care of this. You go sit at the kitchen table and what what boot camp did for me.”

“O...kay.” he replied, walking around the mess and sitting down at the table, interested in what the woman had in store for reprimanding his creations. 

Dorothy smiled, cleaning off her hands and looked at the kitchen as a whole. Her stance were straighter and more official than most were used to. She cleared her throat and clapped her hands together. “Alrighty then. This place is a mess and we are going to fix it. Frenzy, take your twin and Ratbat up to the bathroom and run a bath. I’ll be up shortly after I finish up here. For Laser and Buzz, you two are helping Ravage clean the kitchen. Soundwave will make sure you’re doing your jobs. Then, you’ll go into the bathroom down here and wash your hands before you all come back to the kitchen table and let me make breakfast. Are we clear?”

“But Dorothy!” all of them complained at once and an uproar happened among them, multiple excuses firing at her as they all argued, except for Ratbat who was silently putting his hand in his mouth. 

The woman gave them all a glare as she stomped her foot and got their attention quickly. “Hey!” she yelled, seeming to growl at them. “My house, my rules! No arguing with me on this! Do you understand?!”

All of them when silent for a moment before bowing their heads and nodded. “...yes, ma’am.”

“Good.” she answered, leaning against the wall. “Now get to work.”

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Barricade pulled into the driveway and activated his holo-avatar, stepping out of the driver’s side and walking to the garage to house door. He entered and walked into the living room, expecting Dorothy, Soundwave and the little spies all to still be asleep, but there weren’t there at all. 

Did something happen last night? Did they all go to base without him? No, Bee would have told him if something was wrong. Even if they were a little...distracted last night, the scout would have stopped to listen if something was wrong at base. So where was everyone? He saw the Mercedes Benz on the street, but maybe they all went on a walk. It was one of the cooler mornings in the desert land they lived in.

The police car sniffed the air to smell the usual breakfast Dorothy would make when she had people over, so he made his way into the kitchen to expect some leftovers waiting for him on the counter. He walked in all giddy, but was shocked to see all of the people in the house sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast with each other. The police car stopped walking and stared for a while before coughing in awkwardness. “Um...hey guys.” he called out slowly.

Dorothy looked up from what she was reading and smiled. “Hey ‘Cade. How was your night with Bumblebee? You two have fun?”

“Um...yeah. Something like that.” he answered back, walking over to looked at all of the creations silently eating the breakfast he assumed the woman made earlier. “Why are they so quiet?”

“Dorothy became Ms. Drill Sergeant after they almost burnt down the house.” Soundwave spoke up, helping Ratbat drink his orange juice without spilling it on himself. “It was quite the spectacle. You missed it, sadly.”

“Stop it, ‘Wave.” she scolded, chuckling a bit before she leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. “Barricade’s seen me like that more times than you have.”

Barricade just stared for a bit before questioning if this was reality or not. He pulled over an extra seat and sat in silent for a while as he watched Dorothy and Soundwave interact like he and Bee did. What the heck did he miss last night?!


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

A table flew across the room as someone’s fit of anger started up for the fifth time this week. The table was dented and seemed to be gripped with inhuman strength, crashing against the wall on the other side of the white walled lab and falling to the floor.

“Mr. Ryder, I think you should calm down.” one of the assistants squeaked in fear to the man who had thrown the table. “You shouldn’t be putting that much strain on your new appendage like that. You could break it.”

The scientist turned around, glaring at the smaller person in the room as he hid behind his clipboard. He looked at his hands before clenching them into fists, smiling like he was seeing the best thing in the world. He laughed a bit, quietly but it could still be heard by the other with him. He looked back up to see the assistant had walked back a bit in defense of his well being. “Break it?” he asked, giving the man a questionable look. “I’m just testing its strength. I want to be ready for our next shipment of weapons.”

“May I ask why, sir?” the other male asked, peeking up from behind his clipboard.

Ryder laughed, walking over to the assistant with a proud stride of confident that only a madman would have. He stood right in front of the man and towered over him by half a foot of might and authority. “Because I know that the Autobots will come. I want to be able to dent that oversized tin can they call Soundwave and crush his little creations, too. I want to see the look on her face when I do it, too.”

“But, sir.” the assistant stated, moving his clipboard down a bit, but still hiding behind it. “Even if they do come for another shipment, how do we know Dorothy will show-”

The scientist brought his metallic arm up to the assistant’s neck and pinned him against the wall with a crazed look in his eyes. “Don’t you ever mention her name again! She’s the one who did this to me! She’s the one who broke my arm beyond repair! I don’t want to hear that name come out of your mouth again or so help me I will crush your windpipe to make sure you can!”

The male gave a strangled nod, clawing at the metal hand around his neck as he was suspended off the ground. His face was going pale from the lack of oxygen entering his body and was trying to break the man’s hold on him. Sooner than later, the man was dropped to the floor, taking a big gasp of air before hacking as he bent over. Ryder scoffed and walked a bit aways, testing his grip again as he watched the hydraulics work in his new arm. He looked back over his shoulder as he flexed his hand, smiling a bit too much at the scene of the man choking still.

“You want to know why I’m doing this still?” the man asked, watching as the man didn’t give an answer. “It’s because I didn’t lose yet. Even though Soundwave and those little pests got away, I haven’t lost. I still have my company, my tech, my weapons, my partnership with the Decepticons and I have a new arm that makes me as strong as one of them. I still have power and she can’t take that away from me. I’m still in control and I still want her suffer.”

The scientist finally stood up and nodded. He didn’t bother to grab his clipboard and gave the man a fearful look. “S-So what are you planning to do?”

“It’s quite simple really.” Ryder mused, looking at his fingers as he inspected them. “I’m going to get that little pesky bat. Soundwave and Dor...her seem to love him the most and he seems to be the youngest of the little band of children Soundwave has. I’m going to hurt him, pull him apart and make him suffer so that went the mighty hero comes to save him, the little bat will be nothing more than scrap metal!”

The assistant gulped as he became more afraid of the man before him. “But how are you going to get him? Soundwave would still be at the Autobot base with them.”

“Oh my poor little assistant.” the scientist cooed, grabbing a metal cup from the table and tossing it around with his new arm. “I know where the base is. All I need is to sneak in and sneak out with the little bat in my possession. And if anyone tries to stop me-” The man crushed the metal cup in his hand as a demonstration for the assistant he was with.

“Oh.” the other muttered, scared for his life at this point. 

“Oh what a day that will be.” Ryder continued to rant, seeming happy about his plans. “I wonder if the little one will cry for his carrier to come and save him. Maybe I’ll wait, then. When she comes to his rescue, I’ll snuff out the little creation’s spark right then and there so she can watch. I’d like to see that Autobot medic put him back together again after that. The look on her face will me priceless!”

“Of course, sir.” The scientist could of said that was child murder, but he didn’t know if killing an alien child from another planet was illegal or not. He just stayed silent as the man continued his rant. 

Ryder laughed maniacally as he smiled with glee at his own thoughts. “I can hear the cries of that little bat now. His screams of agony and pain as I shock his little spark to the very limit it can withstand. I want to see him cry and whimper and shake went he sees me, to know that I am the one who will make his pay for what his carrier did to me. I wonder if I could get his other siblings as well. I could detach the wings of those birds and chain that cat up so he couldn’t even move if he wanted to.”

Suddenly, someone walked into the lab with armor and weapons strapped to him. “Mr. Ryder, sir. Our search and capture team was lucky enough to capture one of the transformers while out on the road. He have them here in the south building under containment if you wish to come and see.”

Ryder seemed to brighten up a bit. He smiled, walking over to the guard and patting on the shoulder a little too hard. “Excellent work! I will be there in a few minutes.”

The soldier left and Ryder looked back at the mess he made of the room. He hummed and looked at his assistant. “Call someone to come and fix all of the equipment in here. I need to go attend to this important event.” He only saw the assistant nod before he walked out to walk to the south building.

Ryder walked through the hallways, where other scientists and soldiers avoided his path. He remember what the doctors had told him when he woke up from his coma. His shoulder had been broken into millions of pieces and it had become a dead part of his body since they didn’t get to him in time to save it. Fortunately, they were able to reverse engineer a prosthetic arm from the data obtained from the cybertronians. His right arm was now strong enough to throw a metal table with ease and he could punch straight through a wall without breaking the metal. 

Many of the other scientists said that the arm was unnecessary to their goals, but Ryder saw it as an advantage against the Autobots. With the same technology, they could build exo-suits for the entire guard force and no one would stand in the way of buying their tech. The cybertronians would be history and even the Decepticons wouldn’t be able to stop them at that point. ARTEMIS would be the new leading company in military tech and Ryder would be at the top of the chain. 

The scientist made his way to the south building, which happened to be a testing room for weapons that had been altered into a containment room for any of the unlucky cybertronians his team happened to find. He walked in onto the observatory deck and watched as the men moving the newest cybertronian into the collection, restraining them into suspending cables and securing them into place so that their boss could take to them in personal. He smiled in surprise, recognizing the color scheme well and smirking as he watched their optics online to their usual baby blue.

“My my, what do we have here.” the man with the metal arm mused, watching the bot try and look around more at their surrounding before focusing on the person talking. “A little bee seems to have wondered too far from the hive.”

The yellow and black Autobot scout recoiled a bit as he realized where he was and who was talking to him. He didn’t understand what had happened, being that he was only driving back to base after his and Barricade’s night together. He didn’t feel too good and wondered if he had drank some rancid energon, so he was going to see Ratchet for evaluation. He was on a back road and then everything went dark. He made a worrisome whirl, not wanting to talk to the man that had almost tried to kill Dorothy.

“What? Nothing to say?” Ryder questioned, smiling like a madman. “Hmm...well, maybe I can get you to talk.”

Bumblebee became very afraid as something next to him clicked on and sounded alive. He went wide-opticed for a moment before a sharp shriek came from his vocoder as the cables holding him up became live with electricity and shocked his entire frame down to the spark. He dropped in his weight, his systems lagging as they tried to recover from the abuse they just took. Those cables were much stronger than he wanted them to be, but his optics onlined again to see ryder tossing a remote up and down in his new robotic arm.

“Still nothing, huh?” the man asked, looking at the remote. “I mean, I can always push it again. I can keep going all night. Can you?”

Bee didn’t know what to do. He had been told over countless years to not talk during interrogations and to not say a word, but the last time he did that, he lose his voice in the first place. He watched as the male smiled as he was going to click the button again, but the young Autobot panicked, not wanting to be shocked again. :: _ Okay! Okay! I’ll talk! Please don’t shock me again! _ ::

Ryder paused, smiling to himself and placed the remote away in his back pocket. “Very good. Now, I’m guessing you know who I am and where you are. You Autobots seem to be on top of your game when it comes to being two steps ahead.”

:: _ What do you want from me? _ :: the scout asked, glaring at the man as he spoke. 

“What do I want?” Ryder laughed a bit, smiling wickedly at the cybertronian in front of him. “I want that wretched little bitch to suffer. You’re partnered with her police car friend, Barricade, I think his name is. It would be such a shame if he were to find out you were dead, wouldn’t it?”

The young scout started to panic at that, starting to struggle with his restrains in an attempt to get away. He didn’t want to die, he was too young to die. He was happy with Barricade. He was happy with having Dorothy in his life and her helping him with his problems. He wanted to see the end of the war, where he could be with Barricade for the rest of his life and not have to worry about someone shooting him in the back. He just didn’t want his life to end now. :: _ P-Please! I-I don’t want to die! _ :: he cried out, still trying to break free from the restrains.

The cables activated again and the scout was electrocuted to the core, making his vocoder short out again with a shriek. Once the electricity turned off again, his frame went limp as he hang there, unconscious as his systems tried to reboot themselves. Ryder chuckled as he watched the little Autobot’s optics come back online, but dimmer than before. “Sad little Autobot. What am I going to do with you? I could kill you, but what’s the fun in that?”

Bee whimpered as he felt the man’s metal arm pull his helm closer to the banister of the catwalk. :: _ P-Please… _ ::

Ryder smiled, rubbing his metal thumb against the Autobot’s chinplate. “I know. I think I’m going to keep you. I’ve always wanted my own pet robot. They seem so fun!”

Bee’s optics went wide again as he tried to pull himself away. He didn’t want to be someone’s pet, especially not Ryders. He couldn’t move though, the metal arm holding him seeming to be able to hold him in place as the man continued to pet his chin. It felt so wrong and he was disgusted by it. He couldn’t fight back though, being tied up and all. :: _ W-What are you going to do to me? _ :: he asked, very afraid.

“Oh that’s nothing to worry about, my little Bumblebee~” he cooed, motioning for the crane to move the yellow and black Autobot into one of the open cells. 

The crane moved the scout in and dropped him to the floor, immediately closing the electric bars behind him. Bee’s servos were still tied together with the cable, but he was took week from the electrocutions to move that must. He just decided to curl up in the middle of the ceiling and wait for something to happen. He knew that the Autobots would come and save him from Ryder and that he would be with Barricade again. He knew he wouldn’t be here forever and he wouldn’t be that sicko’s pet.

He was going to be okay...right?


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy and Soundwave get a gift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Barricade didn’t know how many times he had searched all of California at this point, but the more he did it, the more depressed his got. He still couldn’t find Bee after two weeks.

He didn’t tell the Autobots, since Sam was out of town to go and see Mikaela's family on the east coast with her for the month school break. Bumblebee had said that he was going to go with Sam since he didn’t have any duties at base. Two days after Barricade had come to visit the little scout last was the day that Sam was going away. He had gotten a call from him if he had seen Bee lately and said that Bee hasn’t been in the driveway for two days straight. The police car had told the teen that he would call back when he found Bee.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet. He searched every street, garage, junkyard, anywhere that he knew Bee would go in the city for a whole day and nothing. He wanted to check in with base, but if something did happen with Bee and it was because of their night together, he didn’t know if the Autobots would take that very well. He had already tried so hard to earn Optimus’s approval and if something had happened, then he didn’t know what to be more afraid off: Ironhide or Ratchet.

So for a whole other week and a half, he searched all of the west coast on his own when he wasn’t with Dorothy. He could see the worried looks that she had been giving him during that time and he was so tired of searching. He wanted to know that Bee was safe and that his was just him needing some alone time. He could understand, being that he never really liked interacting with others for too long either. But for two weeks without telling anyone where he was going? Something must had been wrong.

Currently, the slightly depressed police drove down the highway as he was trying to make his way back to the base. He decided to break the news to everyone that something had happened to the scout and he couldn’t find him. He also knew that Ironhide would blame him for losing him, probably going to try and kill him as well, but he didn’t even know if Bee was still...he didn’t let himself go there. He still had hope that he would find his partner at some point.

Barricade decided to turn on his comm log and record the fifth message he had made for Bee, hoping that the little scout would pick it up and say something back. He turned into the Camaro’s frequency and started his usual message up again. “Hey, Bee. It’s Barricade, you know, for the fifth time since you’ve gone missing. I don’t know what happened to you and I’m scared. It’s been two weeks and I haven’t told the Autobots yet. Dorothy or Sam doesn’t know either. I didn’t want to tell them because you’re my responsibility. I’m your boyfriend and it’s my job to protect you as you would for me. I hope you can at least understand that.”

The police car made a turn off of the highway and found himself a place to park. He sighed before continuing with the message. “I miss you so much. I feel like it’s my fault you went away, or something. Was it because you didn’t like me in the first place? Were you just dating me to make me happy? Are you upset about something concerning the other Autobots and needed some space because I can understand that. Do you even miss me? Who am I kidding...of course you probably miss me. You love me just as much as I love you and I just want to hear your glitchy, synthesized voice again! I was to see your smile and your bright blue optics. I want to see your bright obnoxious paint coat and hear that little buzzy giggle you do everytime you laugh. Please...please! Come back!”

There was nothing but radio static, white noise and quiet sobs as Barricade cried, waiting for his love to answer back. He didn’t know what he did wrong. Was this Primus getting back at him for being a Decepticon? The police car really didn’t know. He was scared for the little bugger, being that the Decepticons or even Ryder could go after him if he was out there alone. He still got no reply from anyone on the channel, but he heard something, like a whirl or two. The channel did that all the time, so he paid no mind to it and decided to go back home. “Please come back to me, Bumblebee. I love you. Be safe.”

The police car pulled out and took the highway back home to Phoenix, wishing this was all a nightmare and he would wake up with his little Bee in his arms. 

Meanwhile, everyone at the N.E.S.T. base was very very confused. Something, unknown to any of the humans at base, had crashed through the ceiling of the Autobot hanger and dented the concrete floor. Dorothy and Soundwave were currently sleeping in the corner of the room with Ravage and Ratbat while the other kids were playing. After a few screams from them when the thing landed, Soundwave and Dorothy were up, guns loaded. Ironhide had done the same and Ratchet was trying to get his vents to work right again. 

Dorothy was the first one to walk up to it after the thing crashed through the ceiling. It was a small metal egg, shiny and smooth all the way around. It had weird printings on it, which the woman recognized as cybertronian and decided to give it a quick poke with the end of her rifle. It didn’t explode when she touched it, meaning it wasn’t a bomb, but that confused the woman even more. “Hey Soundwave? Have you ever seen a thing like this before?” she asked as he saw the silver mech walk over.

The communications officer looked at the egg and made an electric humming noise as he seemed to read the cybertronian. “It’s a pod of some sort. Some of the lettering is not translatable fore me. There might be something inside, mostly cybertronian.”

Ratchet heard the word “pod” and ran over with his medic kit and equipment. He knelt down next to the small object and plugged a data cord into one of the ports. He hummed and read the report his scanner was getting. “There’s a cybertronian inside, alive but it’s injured slightly from the crash.” He put in an override code and opened the egg, a bit of pressurized air releasing with it. 

 

Inside was a tiny robot, which looked much more cybertronian that Rumble and Frenzy did. It was curled up inside the egg, but it seemed to be in a silent pain. Soundwave and Dorothy both winced at the same time, feeling bad for the little thing. Ratchet seemed to lock into medic mode and removed the little cybertronian from the pod and carry it to the med bay. The two watched the medic leave and Ironhide seemed to noticed the two had the same expression on their faces. He scoffed, knowing that the two had similar feelings over children and decided to just leave them to stare. The rest of the children had ran off to play somewhere else.

“Dorothy, are you alright?” Optimus was the first to ask. “You seem distraught.”

“That was a sparkling, wasn’t it?” she asked, sounding worried and concerned.

The Prime nodded and looked in the same direction as she was looking. “Some creators sent their sparklings out in pods to protect them from the war. But of course, all of the sparklings would have been in stasis for all that time. This one’s parents are probably gone, sadly. He hasn’t aged a cycle since he was put in that pod. From the looks if it, he’s able to drink normal energon, but it all depends on how strong he’ll be from the crash.”

Dorothy felt her heart tighten. She didn’t want the little one to die, not when he had barely had a life yet. The little sparkling deserved to live on longer and have a normal life here. She bit her lip and walked back over to her new love, sitting up on his leg as the two stared in silence at the hallway, waiting for Ratchet to come back with the little one. But that didn’t happen for a long while, since Ratchet didn’t make an appearance until two hours later.

The bright green medic walked back in and sighed loudly, wiping whatever was on his servos off. Out of the corner of his optic, he could see that the woman and Soundwave were staring at him from across the room with worry on their faces. Even if they weren’t bonded, the medic could see how much they cared about their children, or any child in particular. He sighed, walking over and kneeling down to be at their height, since they were both at sitting height. “The sparkling’s fine, if that’s what you two are worried about.” he answered, making both of them relax a good amount.

“That is good to hear, Ratchet.” Soundwave replied, smiling calmly. “Have you identify any sort of development while in stasis?”

Ratchet pulled up his scan report and pointed to one of the lines. “He’s a cassette actually. He has seeker wings due to his creators’ CNA, but it’s definitely a symbiote. He’s not yours or anyone in our systems, meaning that they were neutral or the little one was shipped off before the war started. He won’t grow any bigger, but his mind with continue to grow and mature like it would for Ratbat and the two twins.”

Dorothy was the most relieved out of them, being that she would have hated it if something would have happened to the little one that was fatal. “That’s also nice to hear.” she pipes in. “He’ll have lots of friends with Soundwave’s creations. Are you planning on siring him, Ratch?”

“What?! Me?! No, I’m too busy for that.” the medic admitted. “I was thinking that everyone in the base could all help, especially Ravage since he’s the oldest of the cassettes. But if you two want, you can go check on him for me. He’s sleeping in the med bay right now since he needed to get the stasis chemicals out of his systems.”

Dorothy was the first to get up and make her way to the med bay. She suddenly felt overprotective of the little one, just like she had for Frenzy and Ratbat when they came into her life. She knew the sparkling wasn’t hers, but she always had the motherly nature that everyone seemed confused about. Soundwave followed suit and the two newly in love walked down a couple of hallways to get to the med bay. He looked down at his new love and smiled, knowing that she was going to become very fond of this sparkling. He knew he would too, but the thought of having another child in the base would be hectic for the other Autobots. 

The two came to the med bay and Dorothy got a lift from Soundwave up onto the berth from his giant servo. The mech knelt down next to his mate and smiled when she kissed him on the cheek before walking towards the sleeping cassette. He was adorable with his little wings twitching and his servos curled up against his chestplates. The woman almost ‘awwed’, but she stopped herself knowing it would walk the sparkling. She sat down next to him and silently watched. 

After a while, the little sparkling stirred and took a huge yawn, stretching a bit before opening his optics and looking around. His optics were a dark green and his dark grey plating reflected them well. He looked at the human sitting in front of him and babbled a bit as he stuck his sero in his mouth, quietly observing the woman and the cybertronian behind her. He didn’t really saw much, probably not knowing how, but his wings were fluttering happily behind him.

Soundwave’s smile got bigger as he watched the sparkling cassette, it reminding him of Ratbat when the little bat was younger. He looked at Dorothy, who was silently beaming at the young cybertronian with pride and joy, and chuckled at the sight, knowing that the woman already wanted to hug him. She finally decided to scoot forward a bit and held out her hand flat so the tiny cassette could touch it. He would probably grow a bit more to be Frenzy and Rumble’s size, but for know, Dorothy could probably hold him against her chest easily. “Hi, little one.” she gushed, smiling.

The sparkling took his servo out of his mouth as he giggled with started touching the human hand. He started babbling again when he noticed that the energy around the human was very carrier-like and slowly drifted towards her. He crawled forward and started exploring the human that sat there as Dorothy started to laugh at how cute the little one was being. The little cassette made it onto the woman’s lap and nuzzled his face into her stomach, yawning again. Dorothy smiled and slowly started to pet the sparkling’s helm as he fell back asleep.

“I see he took a naturally liking to you.” Soundwave whispered, moving around the berth so he could see them together. 

“Everyone says I have a motherly aura around me.” Dorothy admitted and smiled a bit more. “I wonder how he’s gonna feel with everyone else. I want him to be safe, but we’re still kinda in the middle of a war.”

The mech nodded, watching the little sparkling start to sleep again. He was so precious and he wondered if the Autobots would let him help develop his skills. Being a cassette, the little mech would need to taught to work in stealth and observation, since that’s what they are usually created for besides family. Soundwave had thought of making a special ops team with his cassettes since they were going to be here for a while with Starscream still in command of the Autobots. He doubt Ironhide would allow it, since it was in his department.

“Maybe...we should parent him, Soundwave.” Dorothy randomly said, making the silver mech choke in his intake and start coughing. 

“W-What?” he asked, trying to make sure the woman was serious. “But we already have six others to worry about. I don’t think I can handle another more of them.”

Dorothy put on this determined face and started one of her famous rants at a lower volume so the sparkling could sleep. “He’s gonna be alone then. Optimus is always working with the government, Ratchet is always going to be working as a medic, and Ironhide won’t care. Bumblebee and Barricade are too busy forming a relationship just like us, but they have not experience in taking care of sparklings. Optimus said something about him not being able to push on if he’s alone after the crash and I don’t want to see him die, do you?”

She had a point. All of the Autobots were either unexperienced in taking care of sparklings, or were too busy too. He looked at his new love and sighed, reaching a digit forward to scratch the sparkling’s back carefully. He smiled as he heard the little one chirp. “...what shall we name him then?”

Dorothy looked at the little sparkling for a second before smiling at the name. “I like Toxin.”

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Bumblebee didn’t know how long he had been crying for, but he had finally run out of coolant to cry. 

He had been in that cell for two weeks with no energon, no sunlight or any contact other than Ryder. He had been shocked, dented, starved and most of all, they took his vocoder away. He couldn’t speak again and it was freaking him out to the point where he froze entirely. The scientist would get bored and go away, but Ryder would always watch him. And today was the worse.

The scientists never disabled his comms, meaning that every time Barricade would send a message, he could hear it, but could never speak back. Today’s was the worst when he heard Barricade start crying for him to come home and the little scout began to lose all hope that he was ever going to survive past this. He was in the back corner of his cell when the door opened again as Ryder walked in with a smile on his face. “Hello, my little Bee. How are we feeling today, hm?”

Of course, the man with the metal appendage knew that the Autobot couldn’t say anything back, but decided to be a jerk and say it anyway. The only thing Bee did in return as cower more in the corner. “Okay then. I have a proposition for you, my pet and I hope you will comply. But first of all…”

There was a click and Bumblebee’s vocoder was released from the mech’s plating and snapped back in place over his scarred mouth. The scout was shocked and very confused in what was going on, but glared at the man as he walked in further. : _ W-What do y-you w-want with m-me? _ ::

“Oh something simply really.” the man answered back, smiling way too large for comfort like he always did. “And if you do this for me, I’ll let you keep your vocoder on and I’ll give you some energon for your cooperation.”

:: _ A-And i-if I d-don’t? _ :: the scout dared to ask.

“I can always torture you more, Bee.” Ryder answered back nonchalantly. The yellow and black mech flinched. “It’s just a simply recording I need you to do for me. Now, do we have a deal, my little Bumblebee?”

The mech stared for a moment and decided that it might be worth it at this point. He nodded, agreeing and suddenly felt a lot of dread for what he was about to do.


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barricade is upset over a recording.

Dorothy was having a great day so far. She had helped to take care of the kids and finally gotten Toxin to take a nap, even if it was against her chest as she was working. He was in recharge, until someone can barging in with the loudest rage she had ever heard. “THAT FRAGGING LITTLE PIECE OF YELLOW SLAG!”

The little sparkling against Dorothy’s chest instantly woke up and became scared, crying and hugging his carrier tightly. He was chirping and beeping as he buried his helm into her shirt. The woman looked about ready to kill someone again when she saw Barricade walked in with the same look. He looked pissed and upset at the same time, growling at anyone who walked in front of him, human or Autobot. Ravage and the rest of the cassettes gave the police car a confused look as he stomped pass. 

“Hey, Barricade?” the eldest of the children called out. “What’s your problem? What’s got you so mad?”

“What’s got me so mad?!” the ex-con asked back, red optics ablaze. “That’s little Camaro slagger is why I am so upset! Couldn’t even say it to me in person!”

Dorothy was getting concerned for both Barricade and Bee at this point. Bee had disappeared about two and a half weeks back and Barricade hadn’t been at base a lot. The only time they saw each other was at work, but he was very quiet. Soundwave usually drove her to the base now since they started a relationship, but the woman was still very concerned when Barricade left the house in the middle of the night to go somewhere. “Whoa, whoa, Barricade, what happened?”

The police car glared over at the human and threw a recording device down on the desk that Dorothy was sitting in front of before going to sit up against the catwalk wall and crumbling into a pit of despair before all of them. He was shaking and sobbing as he hugged himself tighter than he needed to. Ratbat was the only one brave enough to fly over and hug the mech as he broke down. “It okay, Cade.” the little bat comforted.

The woman shifted the sparkling she was holding so he was sitting on her lap facing the desk. He patted the desk and looked back at her, a few tears still in his optics from his fear attack. He chirped at her as she picked up the recorder and examined it, looking between it and the mech crying on the floor in front of her. Soundwave walked over and gave her the same look she gave him: completely and utterly confused.

Dorothy finally played the recording and put the device back down on the desk, Soundwave plugging in one of his tendrils and using his speakers to up the volume. “ _ ::Hey, Barricade.:: _ ” the voice said coming out of the speakers, earning a gasp from everyone but Barricade, who cried more. “ _ ::You’ve probably been wondering where I am and what happened, like everyone else probably is.:: _ ”

“Bee…” Dorothy commented. “...oh no, I know where this is going.”

“ _ ::I decided that we weren’t going to work.:: _ ” the recording continued. “ _ ::I was scared, scared that something might happen to me if I was with you. And something did happen when we went to the ARTEMIS facility. I got electrocuted again. I started to wonder if being with you and Soundwave and everyone else was worth it if something was going to happen…:: _ ”

There was a weird break with some background noise and voices before the mechling continued the recording. “ _ ::So I’m breaking up with you and leaving the Autobots for a while. I’m sorry, but I can’t stay around there knowing that you or someone else will put me in danger again. I already told Sam I was leaving and I took myself off the map. I knew you’d come looking for me, but please stop. I don’t want to see you anymore. Bye, everyone.:: _ ” Then the recording ended in white noise, the only loud thing heard was Barricade still sobbing.

The police car finally looked up from his knees and placed his helm on his arms. “What did I do wrong, Dorothy?...I treated him right, I loved him with all my spark, we did so many things together, but he still rejected me in the end...what did I do wrong?” The little bat on his helm hugged his tighter, trying to comfort him.

Ironhide scoffed, not believing the recording was real at all. “Oh come on. Bumblebee wouldn’t just leave the Autobots. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go!”

Ratchet nodded his helm. “Ironhide is right. Bumblebee wouldn’t just leave because he felt unsafe. He knows that we would protect him and care for him if anything were to happen.” The medic looked at Optimus and motioned him to say something.

“Right.” The Prime cleared his throat and looked over at Barricade. He didn’t really know what to say about the situation and decided to try and comfort the sobbing mech in front of them. “Barricade, is there anything that happened the night before he disappear? Where was he?”

“He was with me at some forest out in northern California.” Barricade explained through a choked voice. “We had dinner together and watched the stars for a while. We talked about home and how we would like to go home. Then we...um...got a little intimate with each other…”

Ironhide groaned and covered his face with his servos while Ratchet tried to hold in his comment about him and Bee making out. The weapons specialist glared at the police car and gestured his servo towards the mech. “Of course. Why am I not surprised? Maybe that’s why he ran off! You hurt him, you aft!” Ironhide walked towards the now frightened police car to have Ratbat start hissing at him for getting too close to Barricade. The little bat didn’t like the weapons specialist still after that time his turret shot him down.

Soundwave finally decided to intervene with the argument and put himself between Ironhide and his creator. “Ironhide, stop it. This is not reasonable for you to be doing, since you know that Barricade had nothing to do with this. Don’t say that Bumblebee ran away because Barricade and him had one rough night together.”

“Says the human fragger…” the weapons specialist mutter. 

Luckily, Dorothy was too busy trying to figure out what the heck the recorder was about to hear what Ironhide said, otherwise he would have been shot in the helm by then. Unfortunately, Soundwave did hear it and was pissed. No one offended him and his girlfriend like that. He transformed his servo into a blaster and pointed it at the mech’s face, his creations all hissing at the Autobot as he did the same. The two were in fighting positions and seconds later, a fight ensued between Ironhide, Soundwave and Ravage.

Now, Dorothy was just staring at the recorder and glared, totally ignoring the fight in the background. Something was wrong. Bee would never leave the Autobots like that and that’s what put her off. Bee admired Optimus, Ironhide and Ratchet so much that he wouldn’t just leave because he felt like he was in danger. Barricade would also never let Bee get hurt on accident. Bee loved Barricade and there was no reason that there should had been a message like that. The woman looked at Toxin, who was a little upset that his best friend was upset. He was making small chirping noises as he waved his tiny servo at the police car. Dorothy petted his helm, but was understandably upset, too.

She glared back down at the recorder and thought for a moment before realizing something. She picked up the recorder, replayed the message and fast forwarded a bit before that weird break in the recording. She listened into the recording device for a few seconds as it played, since Soundwave had unhooked from the device. There were voices, more than one, but mostly male. She couldn’t hear it enough, even if the volume was turned up all the way. “Soundwave, plug back in and maximize the volume on this part.”

The communications officer nodded, coming back over from his fight mid-battle and plugging back into the device and playing the volume louder on the break in between Bee speaking. “ _...Come on, Bee. You’re going to need to sell it if you want to keep your vocoder on. I’d hate for you to lose it again… _ ” 

Toxin looked up at his carrier and tilted his helm, not knowing the voice but could see his carrier wasn’t very happy, along with his sire, brothers and sisters. He chirped as patted his carrier’s chest as he snuggled there, becoming confused, but a bit scared. The man didn’t 

“Ryder?! But how?!” Dorothy answered, growling feraly. “I thought I broke his shoulder! He shouldn’t be able to do anything, let alone capture an Autobot! I swear to Christ I’m going to kill that man. I don’t care about the law this time, I’m going to make his death a slow and painful one! That jerk’s going to pay!”

Barricade stood up and looked at the recording device as the break played again. He began grow worried as he heard the threat. He pictured Bee, all chained up and forced to record that, maybe tortured into it. He needed to save him, knowing that the recording was a false. He looked at Dorothy and seemed to know that she was angry and enraged. He glared at the recorder before clearing his voice box. “I’m sorry to interrupt your veganance, but why did he send it to us today?”

Right after Barricade said that, sirens and flashing red lights went off. Three objects popped up on the terminal screen and everyone one started to move. Dorothy, being the only sane one at the time, picked Toxin up off her lap and handed him off to Soundwave, even if the little sparkling was crying. Ironhide, Ratchet and Prime had already exited the building by the time Dorothy had gotten all of the creations together and to follow her and Soundwave outside. Well, everyone except Frenzy and Rumble.

The little mech wouldn’t move from his spot with his twin as the sirens were blasting. The cassette had gone through so much trauma that he couldn’t handle the noise and didn’t want to move. Dorothy winced and told Soundwave to go outside with the others and she would be right outside. The silver mech hesitated, but followed her orders. Ravage, the condor twins and Ratbat all went outside with Soundwave and a crying Toxin.

Frenzy looked up at his carrier and cowered back a bit behind Rumble, who was also very not okay. Dorothy walked over and hugged them both, trying to calm them down with all the noise. The silver and bronze twins clung onto their carrier as she sat with them, telling them it was alright. It was too loud to hear her own voice with the sirens going off, but she held the two mechlings close to her frame as something whistled from above them. The human knew that sound and picked up the two cassettes and running.

Then, there were explosions.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Ryder couldn’t be more happier in his life. He had done it. He had succeeded at doing something the government never had the balls to do. He was smiling like a little child who had just found a lifetime supply of candy.

The man with his new robotic metal arm rewatched the footage again and laughed again as it ended. He sighed as he waited in his office for his appointment to arrive, since he had a meeting with an old friend today and he was so happy to show them this new fantastic footage. He tapped his fingers on his desk, them making a cluncking sound as that hit the wood each time. The clock ticked on the way and the only thing that could be here was the sound off factory machines working in other parts of Ryder’s new facility.

“You’re a monster.” a cracked voice called out from behind him. “You’re a complete monster.”

The man turned his head to see the blonde and black haired teenage tied and cuffed in the corner of the room in a chair. He had cuts and open wounds everywhere and he looked very hungry by the way his stomach had shrunk in a bit. His blue eyes were cloudy from the lack of sleep. He was hunched over for the most part, but he was trying to sit up. Ryder smiled and chuckled darkly. “I’m the monster? I saved the world from a betrayal, my little Bee. An attack by your kind.”

The teen lashed out, growling at the man, but hurt his wrist in the process when he tugged on the handcuffs too hard. The scientist had found out how to activate his holo-avatar and forced him to stay in it so the torture was more affected. Bumblebee was so upset with himself for what he did, breaking Barricade’s spark like that. He hated himself, but he needed energon to keep himself alive. But Ryder soon broke that and now, he was starving. The kid was crying slightly from the pain he had cause and just wanted to go back home.

There was a knock on the door and Ryder flipped his attention back to his meeting. He smiled and flipped around his screen too to show his business partner. “Come on in!” the man called and the door opened slightly.

Mr. Star entered the room, Bee growling quietly at him from his chair. The silver haired gentleman wasn’t the pristine man Ryder knew before. He looked tired and was severely injured in several places. He had a black eye and bruises all over his neck, like someone had strangled him to the point of almost breaking his neck. He was flinching at every noise, his broken arm in a sling as he held it close to his body. “Mr. Ryder, good to see you again.” the man said, voice raspier than normal.

“Mr. Star, you as well.” the mad scientist answered back. He took no notice to the injuries. “What have you come here to discuss today? I have some very interesting footage for you to look at, if you’re interested. I think it will put us ahead in the game one hundred percent.”   
  
The silver haired male made a nervous laugh. He was hurting everywhere. “That is all good and well, but I am not in charge of this project anymore. My...superior is now. You will be answering to him.” 

Ryder froze and glared. “I see. So where is this ‘superior’ of yours?”

The door swung open and a very tall, buffy male walked in. He had jet black hair with very tan skin. His eyes were a blazing red and he looked very stoic an intimating to anyone in the room. He was wearing a customized suit and Mr. Star flinched as he walked in the room. The tall man glared down at the other and the silver haired man moved back aways and sat down in a chair, shaking a bit. The man regained his focus on the man at the desk, holding his hand out. “Mr. Ryder. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” he said in almost a demented sounding voice. “My name is Mr. Morgenson and I will be helping with your project.”

Bee froze and backed up in his chair in fear. He knew that voice and that voice could only belong to Megatron. He was back.


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The base is made of dust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

The base was gone. It was burnt to the ground and was now just a pile of rumble after the three large bombs blew it up. And Soundwave was a complete and utter mess.

All of the Autobots and N.E.S.T agents were out of the base before the bombs exploded, but sadly three members weren’t accounted for: Frenzy, and Rumble and Dorothy. Soundwave didn’t look at the base when it blew up, knowing that they didn’t make it out in time. He was just staring in despair at the base as Ravage was searching for any remenacse of their bodies in the rubble. He’s known his cassettes to survive worse, but Frenzy was still weak from the poison that had been injected in him and Rumble would die with him since they were twins. He didn’t even want to think about Dorothy at the moment.

Laserbeak and Buzzsaw were sitting on Soundwave’s shoulders as they watched the cybertronian panther nudge over large pieces of concrete and metal, searching for some sign of life. Ratbat was crying against his creator’s chest and Toxin was chirping in a scared tone, probably wondering where his carrier went. The silver mech was completely empty of emotions, knowing he just lost another mate and two of his children in one moment. He didn’t answer any of the Autobots or Barricade when they tried to console him and get him to talk about his pain.

The search lasted a few hours until Ravage stopped at the edge of the base, or where the base used to be. He was going to kill that Primus-forsaken man if it was the last thing he did. He hurt Barricade and was probably torturing Bumblebee somewhere. He killed someone he called his carrier and his siblings and his creator was in complete shock and sadness over it. He wondered how much Starscream had to do with this. He probably watched Barricade drive here after getting the message and knew where to drop those stupid bombs. The panther growled and slammed his paw against the ground, angry with himself for not protecting his siblings.

The eldest of the cassettes dropped to the ground and put his head on his paws, watching. He knew they were alive, they had to be. They couldn’t be dead, not right after they became a family again. Ravage watched and didn’t notice he was crying until the tears hit his forearms. He watched the rubble and noticed one of the piles was slightly dented in a tent form. He got up and walked over, sniffing it and pausing to realize that he smelt fire. He then started tearing apart the piles as the smell became stronger. 

After the last piece of metal was gone, dust puffed up everywhere and clogged up Ravage’s vents before getting blinded by an orange-yellow light. He backed away, coughing a bit before watching the hole as a small metal thing crawled out and dashed towards him. He lifted his front leg up that whatever the thing was, it wouldn’t touch him but it went the hug the other leg. Another one came up and did the same thing, but seemed more talkative than the other. “Ravage! Ravage! Go get Carrier!”

Once the dust cleared, Ravage was able to see that the two little figures were Frenzy and Rumble, but they were both covered in dust and sand. The cyber-panther was shocked, but still was able to wake over to the hole with the light coming out of it and see Dorothy sitting in the bottom of it with a flare lit and almost out. “Nice hole!” Ravage yelled down, smiling that the woman was okay and didn’t seem injured, along with his little brothers. 

“Thanks! I’m gonna need some help getting out though.” Dorothy called back up, putting her flare down so she could receive the help she needed to get out of the large crater in the ground that was formed. The black panther nodded, turning around and partly climbing backwards into the hole so the human could grab onto his tail. The woman nodded and grabbed on, climbing up part way before the large black cat pulled her the rest of the way out. “That was fun in a more violent way.” she answered as she stood up on the ground. 

“How did you get out of that explosion?” the cat asked, questioning the fact that Dorothy was alive in the first place. “Soundwave came out without you and them and then the bombs hit.”

“All military bases have underground bunkers.” the human replied. “It’s a failsafe and the ceiling happened to crumble when the bombs supposedly hit above us. Luckily, I was with these two so I was able to pull them into the bunker as I closed the hatch.”

Large footsteps sounded from behind them and the small human only had a few seconds to turn before someone swept her off her feet and brought her at to their face. Dorothy yelped before she could get a good look at the bright red optics looking down at her with a worried look. The woman chuckled the kissed the mech’s cheek, patting his face. The mech hummed and pulled her back aways. “Dorothy… I thought I lost you…” he said, nuzzling her.

“I know, Soundwave.” she answered back. “I’m sorry I told you to leave me and caused so much trouble for you and the kids. How long have you been searching.”

“Only a few hours.” the communications officer answered back. “Ravage did most of the searching, but everyone was so worried. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I love you.”

The human crossed her arms in front of her chest and raised an eyebrow at him, looking surprised. “Hmmm… I don’t believe you.” she mocked, putting the mech on complete shock as his optics widened at the fact. The human lifted her nose up in the air and side-eyed him as he got this depressed look on his face from her saying that. Soon enough, her facade faded and she kissed him on his nose, chuckling. “I’m kidding, baby. I’m kidding. I love you, too.”

The twins, Ravage and Soundwave all collectively walked back to the part of the lot that wasn’t destroyed by the explosions that occurs earlier. All of the Autobots turned and sighed in relief simultaneously when they say Dorothy riding in Soundwave’s servo, including the kids sitting closer to the end of the lot. They all got up and made their way towards them, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw flying over and landing on their sire’s shoulders and Ratbat landing on his chestplate. They had all sensed this creator’s mood had lightened through the bond. 

“I told you!” Ratbat yelled at his sisters, the two condors scoffing at him from afar. “No explosion is gonna stop Carrier!”

“Yeah, so what?” the red twin answered back, flapping her wings in disagreement while her sister just looked away in shame that she had thought the woman was gone. “She was lucky, but she did save Frenzy and Rumble, so don’t go hating me for anything I say. I just think that the two would have been fine without her having to save them.”

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the nest today.” Ravage muttered loud enough for the condor to hear before Soundwave was able to shun him for saying that. The cat’s younger sibling gasped and flew at his helm, trying to knock her talons into her helm. Ravage sighed, swatting at the bird before ignoring it, but looked at all of them. He suddenly realized something that made him very worried. “Hey, where’s Toxin?” he questioned.

“I left him with Barricade.” Soundwave answered, looking over at the police car that was holding the tiny black and green sparkling up against his chestplates. He was squirming and having a hard time holding the little cassette still as he was trying to look at his carrier. Ravage, taking an unspoken initiative to help, walked over, took Toxin from Barricade ad brought him over to Dorothy.

“Here he is.” Ravage replied, placing the sparkling down carefully from his mouth onto his sire’s hand. There was a happy squeal as the little mechling waddled over and hugged his carrier’s stomach. He looked up at her with his big green optics and giggled, nuzzling her and patting her back. Dorothy smiled and picked him up a bit, cradling him against her body as they all made their way over to the Autobots, who were trying to figure out what to do about this.

“There’s a base down South we could all move to, but we’re going to have to do it in secret so the Deceptions won’t find us again.” Lennox reported to Optimus, looking over at Soundwave as he walked over and let Dorothy get off his servo. “Well I’ll be darned. Not even a collapsing building can kill her.”

“That’s not funny, Will.” the woman replied, nuzzling her child’s helm. “Anyways, anyone come up with a battle plan for when we go tear Ryder in two because that seems very appealing right now since he literally get dropped a building on me.”

“How in the name of Primus are we going to find him?” Ironhide commented. “He’s probably hiding in some bunker somewhere. Even if we did find him, who’s to say that Bumblebee isn’t at that location.”

“Soundwave can analyze the recording device and see where the last recorded message came from and we can start there.” Dorothy replied, looking up at the communications officer and taking out the device from her back pocket. One of the mech’s tendrils came down and took the device from her. “Also check for anything on the device that would give us a geological location of where Ryder might be located.”

“I looked over the recordings from the cameras outside the base and it’s definitely the ‘cons.” Epps yelled over from the makeshift surveillance station he had set up. “I don’t see any silver jets though, so Starscream wasn’t with them.” 

Dorothy quirked her brow at that. She would have thought that Starscream would have went with his seekers, but if he wasn’t there, then something must have been wrong. From what she’s seen, Starscream was a very in person mech, being that he had huge ego, but if something or someone interrupted his plans, then he wouldn’t have came along. Someone must of done something, maybe Ryder or someone else. The Decepticons were working with Ryder and Ryder wanted to get rid off all cybertronians, so did Ryder get rid of Starscream and take over the Decepticons? No, Ryder wasn’t strong enough to do that. 

“That’s funny, but I’ll keep it in the back of my head.” Dorothy replied after snapping out of her thoughts and looking up at the Autobots. “Anyways, all we can do and wait until we get some data on location or otherwise. If Bee was kidnapped somewhere near Tranquility, then the base has to be somewhere close or at least on this side of the country. From what we knew from Soundwave, the Decepticon base was on this side of the country as well, meaning there has to be a midway point between the two.”

“If Soundwave knows where the Decepticons are, then why don’t we ask them?” Ironhide asked, looking all too happy to go and beat up some Decepticons. 

“Element of surprise.” the woman replied, making a stern face at the weapons specialist. “If Ryder doesn’t know we’re coming, then we have more time to ask out a plan if it takes a while.”

Toxin was watching his carrier work and kept patting her face, trying to get her attention back on him. He chirped a couple of times and tilted his helm. The woman looked down at him with a smile and kissed his forehelm. The sparkling squeaked and nuzzled his face into his caretaker’s dusty shirt, which made his vent seize up and start “sneezing” in cybertronian terms. “Bless you.” Lennox commented, patting the little one’s helm.

“Thank you, Lennox.” Dorothy answered back, focusing more on her work now. “You’re being a great uncle, both you and Epps. I hope it lasts.”

“I never imagined you with kids, but I think that all of the cassettes seem to love you.” the army ranger answered back. “But seven kids is a lot.”

“Bee and Barricade make nine.” the woman commented. “But at least I don’t have to take care of the… most of the time at last.”

Barricade glared at Dorothy when she said that. He scoffed at her, which made the woman chuckle back, but he was too worried about his boyfriend. He was happy the message was fake, but worried what was going on with his lover and how much Ryder had done to him to get him to record that message. 

✢✢✢✢✢✢

Bumblebee didn’t know what he was witnessing, but he was shocked and more concerned than he thought he could be for the mech that had tried to murder his boyfriend and family. 

Megatron, who has back in his metal frame after the meeting, was currently using Starscream as a punching bag, verbally and physically. The seeker was bleeding out on the floor, not making a sound and actually making the scout think he might had offlined right there and then. Ryder had shoved him back in the cell in the corner and didn’t really do anything else with him, which he was glad for. But now, he was leaning against the back of the cell to make sure that Megatron didn’t turn his anger against him… again.

After a while, the warlord grew tired of Starscream not reacting to his beatings and opened up the neighboring cell to Bee’s, throwing the mech in there harder than necessary before leaving him to bleed. Once the warlord was gone, the scout carefully moved over to the other side of the cell to see what condition Starscream was in. Of course, it wasn’t very good. Wings were bent in bad positions, multiple opening in his plating and one chestplate ripped off from the point where Megatron had threatened to rip his SIC’s spark out. He kinda felt bad for the mech, but didn’t bring himself to talk.

Starscream’s optics onlined dimly after an hour of laying there on the floor of the cell. He looked around and sighed, knowing what had happened and decided not to move. He looked over to see the Autobot scout leaning against the bars of where the two cells connected. “You must pity me… don’t you?” he rasped, his voice box bhaving been bented inwards and making his voice malfunction.

Bumblebee onlined his optics, looking at the mech and shaking his helm. :: _ You tried to kill Barricade. _ :: he said back. :: _ If I was being honest, I would want you dead right now. _ ::

“You’re not wrong.” the seeker answered back, regaining the rest of his strength to move and lean against the bars. “I would want to be dead too right now, but sadly  _ Megatron  _ would never let that happen. He would find a way to revive me and then beat the scrap out of me again.”

That hurt Bumblebee’s spark to hear surprisingly. He couldn’t see Optimus, Ratchet or Ironhide doing the same thing, but if his leader did that he would want to be dead too. :: _ Why do you still follow him then? _ ::

“You think the Autobots would let me join them just because I came to them saying that I’ve been abused by Megatron for everyday since the war started?” the seeker asked, sarcasm filling his tone. “They would think I’m lying. They would think I’m lying and try to kill me anyway. I’m surprised you care.”

:: _ You’re getting abused, Screamer. _ :: the scout commented back. :: _ It’s not right. No one should go through that, even you did do that same thing to Barricade _ ::

There was a long pause between the two mechs as the feeling of doubt and regret filled the air between them. “...I was scared.” Starscream spoke up, sounding like he was crying. “I was always scared. Scared that one day, even if that son of a glitch died, he would come back and kill not me, but Skywarp and Thundercracker. He would kill them and I would have no one left in my life to protect me from him. And now, they aren’t even here to save me. They’re probably not even worried.”

Bee frowned behind his vocoder and sighed, giving a few sad whirls. :: _ Well… they’re your family. Of course they’re worried. Family means nobody gets left behind, or whatever that saying was. They’ll come looking for you, just how Barricade and the rest of the Autobots will come looking for me. _ ::

“At least you get a happy ending.” the other mech answered back. “It’s funny how Barricade and Soundwave get protected, yet when it comes to me, everyone loves to throw me under the transport vehicle and lets me get run over a million times.”

:: _ Dorothy… she might help you…  _ :: the scout said, awkwardly and not sure if he was right. :: _ It’s not that I like you or anything, but I could put in a word for you. She knows what it’s like to be in abusive relationship and maybe she could give you some tips to how to defend yourself better. _ ::

“...you think she would do that for me?” Starscream asked, trying not to turn his helm as much. “After all I did? I hurt her and her new family and you think she’ll forgive me just like that?”

:: _ I don’t know. You’d have to see for yourself. _ :: Bumblebee replied. Suddenly a servo grasped around his and he looked down to see Starscream was lightly clinging to him and had coolant in his optics. The scout sighed, gripping back at the clawed servo and making sure that Starscream was in recharge before letting go. 

“Thank you, Bumblebee.” the seeker said before offlining his optics and going into stasis, his injures forcing his systems to go into repair mode and leaving the Autobot scout to wonder if he’d survive the night. 


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bumblebee and Starscream are scared for their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

A few weeks went by where nothing happened and Bumblebee was starting to get worried. Of course the Autobots didn’t forget about him, right?

Starscream had been taken out of the cell next his the night after they had their emotional conversation, but it seemed like the abuse didn’t really stop afterwards. A few times throughout the past month during Ryder’s production period, since there was a lot of building going on in another warehouse, Starscream had ended up back in the cell next door in the same beaten and damaged condition as the first time. Sometimes he was worse or better but still, Megatron was the cause of it all. The scout would sit up against the bars and comfort the seeker, feeling bad for him and just keeping him company.

But about two weeks ago, there was one beating that didn’t end so well. Bumblebee was recovering from another of Ryder’s “talks” while Megatron was having at Starscream again. The difference between this spat and the others was that Ryder was staying to watch. The spat ensued as usual with Megatron beating the living scrap out of Starscream and the end, Starscream was mostly a scrap of metal on the floor and bleeding out most of his energon. But this time, Ryder seemed to have something else in mind. “Megatron, as much as I love the bond between you and your SIC, I don’t believe it’s as genuine as you think.”

The Decepticon warlord rolled his optics, reaiming one of his cannons at the second to make the nearly unconscious seeker whimper. “Do you think you’re funny, Mr. Ryder?” Megatron growled.

“No, no. Of course not.” the human answered back, waving his robotic hand in dismissal. “I was just thinking that there is no better way for Starscream to prove his loyalty than putting him through a little Turing test.”

“A Turing test?” the warlord asked back, confused on the term. “I don’t know what you proceed on doing, but if you try to mess up my plan with this test, then I won’t hesitate to kill you right here and now.”

“Not at all. No one wants to see me killed.” the scientist pointed out as he walked over to the keylock on Bee’s cell. The bars opened and the scout inside instinctively scooted to the back of the cell where he would be the safest. He continuously watched between the Decepticon leader and Ryder, not knowing what was planning, but knowing it probably wasn’t a good thing. “Instead, I want you to bring Starscream over here and sit him upright in front of my little pet here.”

The seeker was dragged across the floor and harshly sat upright by his master, groaning and whimpering in pain as he dimly stated at Bumblebee. “Wh-t?” he asked, voice box glitching on him. 

“Now this will be easy for anyone to understand.” the scientist continued with a sadistic smile on his face. “What I want you to do Starscream is to shoot Bee over there, which should be simple. If you shoot him, I will personally have my people repair your frame and systems and you would have shown your loyalty to the Decepticon cause. And if you don’t… well that’s up to Megatron to decide. It’s your choice to make.”

Bumblebee looked at Starscream and suddenly feared for his life. The seeker stared back and didn’t seem to register anything, but he did raise his less injured arm up and was ready to shoot a bunch of bullets at the scout. Bee sat still and silently prayed to Primus that his wasn’t going to be the end of him. Did Starscream forget all the things Bee did to comfort the him? Was he only doing this because he was scared that Megatron would kill him if he didn’t? Or was his processor not working and just on autopilot, following instructions that were given? Either way, the scout curled up a little tighter and tried to make himself invisible.

There was a long pause of silence between when Ryder finished giving out his instruction and the sound of Starscream’s weapon powering off. The seeker put down his arm and shook his helm. “No.” he rasped out, continuing to focus on the scout. “I can’t shoot him. We still need information from him.”

Ryder looked up at Starscream and gave him a confused look. “That wasn’t one of my options. Are you chickening out, Starscream?”

“No, I could shoot him, but I won’t.” the seeker stood up for himself. “The scout has information and I believe I saw probing technology in the works in some of your files. Instead of killing him, you could finish that tech and we could get the information that way and still have a bargain chip for the Autobots when they do come looking for their scout.” 

Unfortunately, Megatron wasn’t going to take that as an answer. He kicked over his bleeding second and placed his pede down on his back, pressing and making the seeker’s frame bent inwards. “You’re weak and pathetic, Starscream. Don’t use your lies on me. If you think this Autobot is so important, then you can stay here with it.” The warlord walked away, exiting the cell with Ryder and letting the bars close and lock behind him. The two made their way to another part of the large warehouse development and left the scout and the very damaged seeker alone.

Bee sighed to himself, uncurling and scooting over to the seeker with a worried look. Starscream was barely conscious, but made optics contact with the yellow and black mechling. He tried to say something, but his voice box wouldn’t make anything more than static and white noise. Bumblebee pulled the seeker carefully to the back wall of the cell and let him sit up against it. :: _ You didn’t have to do that. _ :: he commented.

“No matter what, I was going to get hurt again.” the seeker finally was able to say after resetting his voice box a couple of times. “I wasn’t lying about you having information though, so I gave you maybe a few more months to live before that manic of a human decides to get rid of you.”

The scout nodded and sat next to the damaged Decepticon, deciding to hold his servo and rub his thumb over it as he waited for the seeker to pass out again. :: _ That was surprisingly nice of you though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you sacrifice yourself for someone like that. _ ::

“Trust me, it won’t happen again.” Starscream answered back, offlining his optics so he could rest. Pain sensors were going off everywhere in his frame, so he was trying to ignore them by waiting for stasis to come and shut him off while his self-repair systems took hold. The scout silently stayed with him, letting the seeker rest his helm on his shoulder as they both seemed to fall into recharge, Bumblebee only dosing so that he could make sure Starscream was safe. 

This happened a couple more times where Megatron would beat up his SIC and throw him in the same cell as the scout. Two more weeks when by and Bumblebee was starting to worry that the Autobots weren’t coming after all. He had learned from Starscream in one of their previous night together that the base in California had been bombed and his whole world seemed to crash around him. Did that mean Optimus, Ratchet and Ironhide were gone? Was Barricade gone? He really didn’t want to think about it, but couldn’t stop from sobbing his optics out. Reluctantly, the seeker he shared the cell with was nice enough to comfort him that time.

Today was a different day though, since Bee happened to wake up not in his cell, but strapped down on a giant medical berth and had wires all attached to his spark chamber. The scout started to panic, being that his chestplates were stuck open and he couldn’t close them at all to hide his spark chamber. It was also really scary because a bunch of Decepticons were staring right at him, including Megatron and that usually wasn’t a good thing. Ryder was standing off to the side as he worked with the rest of the scientists to get whatever Bumblebee was hooked up to ready.

“Oh hello there, little Bee.” the man called up to the scout, smiling a little more demanded than usual. “How’s the view? I have very big plans for you today.”

The scout started to pulled on the restraints that held him down and tried to get his chestplates to close, but he failed to do so and made the Decepticons watching just laugh at him for trying. Bumblebee didn’t really mean to start crying, but being that if a cybertronian’s spark chamber was showing and they couldn’t cover it up, they would been an emotional mess as well. Coolant started pooling in the mechling’s optics as he continued to struggle against his bonds. :: _ Let me go! Please! Don’t keep me like this! I’m not your pet! Just let me go! _ :: he screamed as much as his vocoder allowed.

The Decepticon warlord growled and walked forward, grabbing at one of Bee’s chestplates and slightly bending it. The scout yelped and whimpered in pain as he stopped moving, staring at Megatron as he felt his chestplate bend painfully. Once the scout was quiet, the warmonger chuckled darkly to himself, letting go and looking at Ryder with a glare. “I shut him up. You better start working faster before something happens to you.”

“Of course.” the human scientist said nervously, fiddling with the plating of his metal arm as he went back to work. “Anyways, femmes and gentlemechs or ladies and gentlemen, today we can finally say goodbye to the Autobots and wipe them all out without problem. With the new energy source that I have reverse engineered into technology and weapons, one shot will automatically kill any cybertronian.”

Ryder pulled a level and a metal covering for a glass container, revealing a metal shard floating in the middle. Most of the Decepticons just stared in silence, but Megatron became very enthusiastic while Bee started to panic even more. :: _ Is-Is that an Allspark fr-fragment? _ :: he asked in fear, vocoder glitching out because of it.

“Yes it is, my little Bee.” the human continued. “And you are hooked up to it. I figured out, though what happened at Mission City that not only can the AllSpark give life, but it can also take it away. Once I start producing ammunition with metal infused with the AllSpark’s energy, one bullet would be able to kill a mech or femme instantly. A sword would be able to slice a cybertronian in half and disintegrate them. But sadly, I can’t kill you yet. In the meantime, I will just have to show you how power human ingenuity is.”

The machine the rest of the scientist were working on powered up and a powerful shock blasted through the cables that were hooked around the edges of Bee’s spark chamber. A loud shriek came from the electrocuted mech as his vocoder malfunctioned, the power making the mech arch his back up in pain. His back thudded back down against the berth and the mechling’s vision blurred out along with his audial receptors starting to ring loudly. He felt like he was going to die and could only whimper. The male didn’t stop with one shock though.

Periodically over the next few minutes, Ryder shocked the poor little Autobot and laughed while doing it. Some of the Decepticons in the room were chanting for Ryder to turn up the voltage, but Megatron just watched, thinking of how easy it would be to control the human race after this. All that power would give him the ability to rule and cyberform the Earth into a New Cybertron and he could finally complete his main goal for being on this mudball of a planet. But one thing the human mentioned bothered him from the beginning, and that was this “Dorothy Haven” he had such a hatred for. 

Suddenly, the machine powered off abruptly and the cheering stopped as Ryder furrowed his brows in concern and confusion. His scientists started to run diagnostics on how the machine could have stopped working, but it wasn’t an internal problem. The mad scientist looked around the masses of the machine and saw the one of the cables that connected the AllSpark fragment to the generator was harshly pulled out from its socket. He travelled the cable to find that a pede had pulled it out of place, Starscream’s pede.

“Starscream, you pulled the cable out!” the man yelled, supposedly scaring the seeker who was standing nearby. “It’s going to take me a while to fix that, you clutz!”

“What?” the SIC asked, confused about what he was yelling about until he looked down to see that his pede was entangled with the aforementioned cable. “Oh… um well, my mistake…”

It’s wasn’t long before a servo seized the seeker’s neck and was starting to choke him to death. He yelped, struggling as Megatron held him there and didn’t move. After the seeker’s neck had been crushed enough, he launched the seeker across the room into a wall, one wing snapping in half and Starscream felt to the ground with a thud. He was whimpering, his voice box not allowing him to do much else as the warmonger advanced in him with murder in his optics. He stepped on the mech’s chest and dented it inwards, Starscream screaming static as pain surged through his systems. 

The proximity alarms went off and most of the Decepticons gathered in the hangar looked up at the blaring lights. “Dr. Ryder, it seems that the Autobots have found us.” one of the scientists working spoke up, the cybertronians in the room all growling in unison. 

“Oh not again! I need more time!” the mad scientist argued, yelling at the man in the chair reporting to him. He looked at Bumblebee and glared, thinking that the scout figured out how to get a message to them. “Put the Autobot in the cell! I’ll deal with him after we fix this Autobot problem outside!”

The Decepticons next to Bee unhooked him from the berth and dragged him over to the cell, throwing him in the same time Megatron decided to throw Starscream in as well. Both the scout and the seeker laid out on the floor of the cell, mostly unconscious as the Decepticons ran out to do battle with the incoming Autobots outside the base. Megatron watched the seeker turn its head to look at its master and smiled. “I’ll deal with you later, Starscream. I’ll deal with you in a very very  _ personal _ way.” the large mech seethed before exiting himself.

That made the SIC flinched and dread his life even more, looking towards the scout and moving a bit closer as if the unconscious Autobot would protect him from his leader and what was to come. Bee, who was still a bit conscious, wrapped his arm around the frightened Decepticon and hugged him closer after he too heard the threat placed on him. 

Meanwhile, Ryder was trying to figure out a faster way to get the machine hooked back up to the generator. He looked around and saw the most of the guards have left to fight against the Autobots, except one who was standing at the door with an oddly colored rifle in their hands. He sighed, walking over and tapping mask the helmeted guard in the face to startle them awake. “Hey! There’s a battle going on outside! You should be helping everyone!”

The guard nodded, but stayed put and not listening to the man’s orders. Ryder huffed, turning his back to the stubborn guard as he walked back to the machine, muttering to himself. Of course that meant the man didn’t see the guard follow him and slammed the butt of their rifle into the back of the scientist’s head, knocking him out and him falling to the floor. The guard turned to the rest of the scientists, who were about to leave and fired some warning shots into the ceiling. All of them left faster and left the guard by themself in the warehouse with two unconscious mechs and one man that deserves a lot of pain. 

Soon, the gun the guard was holding transformed and sat in their hands, hugging their body and whimpering. The little black and green mechling nuzzled the guard as it took its masked helmet off and sighed. The little mechling giggled and clapped his servos together as his carrier smiled back at him. He proceeded to climb onto his carrier’s chest and cling there while they kissed the little mech’s helm. 

“Good job, Toxin.” the carrier commented, looking around. “Now let’s go bring Barricade and Soundwave in before they both think I’m dead or something.”


	39. Chapter 39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mom is very disappointed in her children and tries to help a birdie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Dorothy was very confused on what was going on, since she had only turned around to witness a small portion of the problem that was going on behind her. Of course, Toxin had no idea what was going on either but seemed to be giggling like there was no tomorrow because he was a child and apparently mindless violence was hilarious to him.

It all started when Barricade and Soundwave had finally made their way into the warehouse after Dorothy had opened the back door for them and went on to try to figure out what the massive torture machine in front of her was. Ryder was currently handcuffed to the railing of the platform they were on and Toxin was clinging onto his carrier’s back like a spider monkey to watch her work. The two mechs were tasked of getting Bumblebee out of her to Ratchet and avoid being caught by any Decepticons along the way.

Of course, that plan went completely out the window as soon as Soundwave hacked opened the cell Bumblebee was in and Barricade stepped in to retrieve his long last love. Once the lights in the cell flickered on, the sight that the police car beheld completely flipped his world upside and shredded up into a blender for old time’s sake. Bumblebee was laying in the back of the cell, damaged and starting to come to, with Starscream curled up and whimpering slightly right next to him. The seeker looked up to see a very shocked and confused Barricade inside the cell with him and exactly knew where his thought process was.

The police car immediately started yelling incoherently at the seeker as he pounced at the Decepticon SIC in hopes to choke the mech to death. Soundwave panicked, knowing that someone might hear Starscream screaming his last breaths out and activated his tendrils to desperately hold the deranged police car back from completely murdering the seeker. Bee had snapped awake at that point and was in immense pain throughout his frame, but was Starscream scrambling away from something and thought Megatron or Ryder came back to kill them. He instinctively moved in front of the seeker and tried to understand what in Primus’ name was going on, since his optics were still blurry from his torture session.

Around his time, Dorothy was still working on how to hack into Ryder’s personal files and regretted not bringing at least one of the kids that had hacking abilities with her. She had to bring Toxin since she found out her could transform into weapons, but Soundwave had convinced her to leave the others back with Lennox and Epps. Hopefully the boys were able to handle them until the rescue mission was done, but who was she kidding. She just hoped to the two men were still alive by the time she got back.

The woman seemed to finally break into her maniac of an ex-boyfriend’s secret files when she heard screaming of all variety and a cute giggle coming from behind her. She groaned as she slammed her head down on the large monitor in front of her as she wondered why she even choose to work with men anyway. Well, Soundwave was an exception as well as the kids, but on all other accounts, she hated it. She reluctantly turned around after transferring Toxin to her arms and glared at all of them. “What part of ‘don’t make any noise!’ did you not… understand?”

Dorothy didn’t really know what she was witnessing and really didn’t want to know. Barricade was currently trying to strangle a very wounded Starscream, but Soundwave was trying to hold him back. Bumblebee was guarding Starscream from Barricade, even though the scout was looking as damaged as the seeker behind him. Soon, Barricade became tired of screaming and the scout finally got a chance to speak.

:: _Barricade, please just listen to me! Starscream isn’t going to hurt you or anyone else!_ :: Bee yelled at his lover as he tried to still protect Barricade from getting any closer to Starscream. :: _He just doesn’t want to be hurt again! He’s already been tortured enough by Megatron!_ ::

“Oh for what?!” the police car answered back, still trying to break out of Soundwave’s hold. “Being a wimp and cowering behind someone else!? I suffered a month of torture and I want my revenge please!”

“Barricade, please desist!” Soundwave added in to the conversation, starting to lose his grip on the mech he was trying to hold back. “This is not the rational way to deal with this!”

“I don’t care if it rational or not!” the ex-Decepticon argued back. “He tortured me and he set Ryder up to torture you and the cassettes! I don’t see why you’re not with me on this! Bee has clearly lost his processor from the amount of abuse he was under and faster I kill the fragging seeker, the better off we’ll all be!”

:: _No! I promised to help him!_ :: the scout argued, holding onto Starscream’s arm to support the crumbling aforementioned SIC behind him. :: _Just let him talk to Dorothy, please! I said that she could help him since she helped you and Soundwave! He just wants to feel safe again!_ ::

“Why in the name of Primus would I let that winged sicko go anywhere near Dorothy?!” Barricade yelled, making Bumblebee move back further from them. “He almost blew her up and has probably been planning to murder her afterwards! The mech deserves to be scrapped!”

“Excuse me, but I am right here!!” All three of the mechs stopped arguing with each other and looked at the platform to see that Dorothy was standing cross-armed and glaring at all of them. Toxin, who was sitting on his carrier’s shoulders, was doing the same, but broke out into a giggle a little bit afterwards. “Can I please speak for myself?! I am very comfortable with doing so!”

The three nodded and moved away from each other, Soundwave choosing to drop Barricade to the floor for that matter. “We were sorry, Dorothy. We didn’t mean to upset you.” The other two nodded in agreement as the woman sighed heavily. She placed Toxin down on the catwalk and marched down to the floor level to personally talk to the boys without getting her sparkling involved. She walked over and stood in front of them, glaring at them all even though she knew Soundwave was only trying to help.

“Barricade, Bee, go make up with each other and mingle. Soundwave and I will be there in a few minutes.” Dorothy ordered, watching them to make sure they agreed before marching off to the other side of the warehouse. Barricade helped the smaller mech walk, since he had strained all of his energy trying to defend Starscream. The human looked over at Soundwave and sighed, looking over at the quivering mess of a seeker on the floor in front of them. “Soundwave, let’s go talk to Starscream. I want to see what Bumblebee is talking about.”

The human made her way over to the whimpering seeker on the floor, but made sure to be careful knowing that Starscream could try to swat at her if she got too close. The woman made sure Soundwave was behind her, but he seemed a little skeptical about this whole ordeal. “I don’t trust him.” the communications officer reported blandly. “I never truly did.”

“Hey, I don’t either, but if Bee says he’s being abused, I at least need to try and help him. What kind of human liaison for rehabilitating cybertronians would I be?” Dorothy answered back, slightly joking. She walked over and knelt down next to Starscream’s helm. Being a loyal boyfriend, Soundwave sat down directly behind her to make sure the seeker didn’t pull anything. Dorothy didn’t agree, but kept silent about it since she needed to try this. “Starscream?”

Two dim red optics looked at her from behind dented arms after she said that. The seeker was completely terrified still and didn’t really want to talk to anyone right now. He scanned the room to see Soundwave, the mech he purposely tried to kill, was sitting right in front of him with an untrusting look on his face. The human named Dorothy, which he remembered Bumblebee speaking off, was kneeling next to his helm and seemed much more trusting. “…please go away.” he finally answered back.

“Soundwave and I are only here to help you, okay.” Dorothy tried again, keeping her hands right here the seeker could see them. “Bumblebee said that you were being hurt and by the looks of it, this is pretty bad. You want to tell what happened?”

The seeker became confused, searching the woman’s tone for any sort of malice or mockery. There was none. Absolutely no negative tone whatsoever, and it made the seeker became very, very distraught. He knew she was with the Autobots, but she had sent Barricade out of the room and the only other being here was Soundwave, an unconscious Ryder, and that little black and green cassetteling on the platform that seemed to be entirely smiling. The woman should have been holding a grudge, but she wasn’t. “Why…why are you trying to help me?”

“Because I think you at least deserve a chance to explain yourself.” the woman answered back, smiling slightly. “So, did you do something wrong for you to get damaged like this? I wasn’t in the room until after everyone announced the Autobots were outside.”

“Yes…” Starscream answered afterwards, but didn’t continue. The bot only seemed to curl up more on himself and sink further into self-hatred. “I was… I was just trying to help Bumblebee after he helped me. I disconnected a wire and that’s it. It was just one wire, but no, apparently it means I have to get thrown to the floor and almost choked to death. They didn’t even give me a chance to run…”

Dorothy’s soft smile turned into a worried frown as she was listening to this. This was abuse, maybe not relationship wise, but authority wise in the Decepticons. She looked at Soundwave to see his usual monotone expression and was a little confused. Did this happen often and did the mech just let it slide by like nothing happens? The human scooted forward a bit and pressed a hand to this helm, rubbing her thumb gently against the plating. “It’s okay, Starscream. I believe you.” she answered back.

The seeker’s optics seemed to brighten a bit and watched the human as she slightly comforted him. The hand on his helm was nice as he leaned into it and offlined his optics briefly to just calm himself down a bit before continuing. “He threw me in the cell with Bumblebee and I felt like no matter what I do, I’ll always get beaten to into scrap metal.”

“Who? Megatron?” Dorothy asked, just making sure she was on the right train of thought. The seeker froze and didn’t say anything, proving her statement. She nodded and moved forward a bit more, rubbing his forehelm still as she leaned on his a bit. The SIC seemed to just be watching her and relaxing a bit, trying to forget everything that’s ever happened to him. “Do you want to hold me?” she asked, smiling.

“What...” Starscream asked back, looking confused. “But Soundwave would…”

“Soundwave isn’t going to do anything unless I tell him to.” Dorothy answered back. “If you want to hold me, you can. I’m not against it.”

The seeker stared at her before the slightly of smiles appeared on his face and it wasn’t an evil smile. It was a genuine smile as he moved one servo to shakily cupped around the human’s back and move her closer to his cheek. The woman chuckled lightly as she settled in the crook of his cheek and watched the seeker’s tight expression relax a good amount from knowing that he wasn’t going to be harmed for something. “I thought all humans were fueled on greed. That’s what I’ve seen in the past, but why are you so different?”

“Barricade asked me the same thing once. I just answered that human have evolved to share compassion from then. Sadly, some people decide to show it more than others.” Dorothy answered sincerely and chuckled when she felt one of Starscream’s digits start petting her arm. “You just need the find the right cybertronians in your life to comfort you and it goes a long way for your mental health. I sure there’s at least one Decepticon that gives you comfort. Frenzy told me you have trinemates. Why not try them?”

“Loyal to Megatron and wouldn’t dare to intervene if I was getting beat into the floor.” Starscream replied back way too fast for Dorothy’s liking. “And why would they stop it anyways? It’s the only form of entertainment you can get in the ranks. I thought Megatron was proud that I had reached SIC all those vorns ago, but I guess I’m still just his whipping mech to torture and blame for all his failures.”

The woman sitting next to Starscream felt her chest start to hurt. She didn’t realize it was that bad and was now secretly plotting to find a way to murder Megatron. Dorothy leaned forward and hugged the mech’s cheek, hushing him and trying to help him stop crying. The seeker brought both servos up to cup the human closer to his face, allowing the comfort and absorbing it like a sponge. She looked over the mech’s body and cringed at the sight of his wings and the rest of his frame. He needed a medic and Ratchet was on the other side of the warehouse plot.

“Starscream, I can’t let you join the Autobots.” Dorothy admitted honestly. “Barricade and everyone else would try to either kill you are hurt you and I don’t want to see you go through that. But if you need to, you may come and visit my house in Arizona if you need an escape from Megatron. You’d have to come in as your holo-avatar, but I’d be happy to patch you up and give you some company for a while.”

The seeker carefully moved his helm to look at her in awe. The human was going to help him? A human of all things was going to help him? If he was dreaming, he didn’t want this to be over yet. He smiled a little brighter and the woman chuckled, leaning forward and kissing the seeker on the cheek as she slipped out of his servos. Starscream looked at her and nodded. “Thank you, Dorothy. Bumblebee was right about you. I would be happy to come over and spend some time with you.”

“Excellent. Now rest. You’re very damaged.” she replied, patting the SIC’s forehelm. Once the mech in front of her was in stasis, she flipped around to Soundwave and looked pissed. “So you just let this happen?”

“I-“

“No! You don’t get an excuse!” the woman berated. “What if that happened to you, or to the kids? Would you just stand by and let it happen? No, I don’t think you would! So you are going to go call the Decepticon medic to get his aft in here and then you are going to help me remove the Allspark fragment from this machine!”

“Dorothy-“

“Nope, I don’t wanna hear it!”

“But Dorothy-“

“Nu-uh, I told you I don’t wanna hear it!”

“Please just listen to me-“

“Talk to the left hand, Soundwave, cause you ain’t right!” the woman yelled, putting up her left hand for emphasis.

“Dorothy!” the mech finally got through to her, pointing at the platform. “The fragment, Toxin and Ryder are gone!”

The woman’s face paled as she looked in the same direction, seeing that the platform was completely void of anything and that she might have to go murder someone in a few minutes.


	40. Chapter 40

To say that Dorothy was pissed was an understatement.

The woman was racing around the warehouse with her revolver in hand as she was frantically and very lividly searching for her sparkling. The warehouse was huge and a maze of catwalks and platforms, so there was a slightly chance that Ryder could have left the building already. Dorothy dreaded that thought, but that didn’t stop her from searching. She was calling Toxin’s name throughout the warehouse and still wished she had brought at least Ratbat with her to help with the mission. Then again, he was way too young for this kind of mission and she didn’t want him to get hurt.

She really didn’t think this through by bring her youngest with her, but she needed a powerful weapon to blast through the gates of the warehouse and didn’t want to try stealing any of Ironhide’s. The woman continued running around the warehouse and tried to think of what Ryder was trying to do with the Allspark fragment in the first place. The file said he was trying to make weapons, but that wasn’t it. He wouldn’t have needed to take Toxin for that. So why risk taking the kid? What did he need so badly from Toxin for the Allspark fragment?

The woman stopped walking for a moment and started to freak out even more than she was. She started sprinting and calling Toxin’s name more frantically until she heard crying. A sparkling’s cry. Dorothy froze and listened, realizing that it was coming from above her on another platform. She smirked with fury in her eyes and started climbing up to that platform. She was going to shot Ryder so many times that he was be unrecognizable by the time she was down with him.

Meanwhile, Ryder was in full out panic mode. He knew Dorothy was going to murder him and that was the scariest thing. He growled as he tried to keep the crying sparkling from squirming in his arms as he was trying to configure the Allspark fragment in the container beside him. The scientist could hear the woman coming and he could tell she was beyond pissed that this point. If he made it out of this alive, he would have to remind himself to never touch a woman’s child ever again.

There was the sound of something flipping over the railing of the catwalk and there appeared a very livid carrier with the intentions of killing a man. Toxin looked over and started crying more, trying to make grabby hands at his carrier, but failed due to the fact that Ryder was holding his arms down and preventing him from moving. He just wanted to go home to his sire and siblings so he could play.

“Ryder, give me back my child now!” the woman screamed, growling almost with her revolver pointing straight at his head.

“Don’t you want to hear my evil plans?” the man asked before almost getting shot in the head with a bullet skimming past his ear. The man looked back at her and chuckled a bit. “Okay then. You’re pretty serious about that. Look, how about we just talk about this.”

“Talk? Talk about what?” the woman questioned as she started walking over to him. “The fact that you’re trying to murder one of my kids right now? Or the fact they you’ve tried to murder all of my kids and my current boyfriend at the moment? Because sure, we can talk about that.”

“Really?” the man asked, a little surprised at that fact.

“Yeah, when you’re dead and in a furnace being cremated.” the woman answered back and continued making her way down the catwalk.

The scientist started to panic and looked down at the Allspark fragment next to him. He clicked a button and smirked, looking at a charge started to build inside the canister. The Allspark fragment started to glow and make electrical bolts against the glass walls. “Welp, I might as well take all three of us down if I’m going to die anyway.”

“What did you do?!” the woman asked, fearing for the life of her child at this point.

“Overcharged the fragment so it turns into a bomb.” the man answered back and processed to use his metal hand to start crushing one of Toxin’s winglets. The sparkling started crying more and Dorothy changed her gun angle again from its lowered position. “The timer is set for two minutes. Maybe you have a chance to get your sparkling out of here before it blows.”

The woman stared at Ryder with a shocked expression and sighed. “Wow, you really thought this out.”

“I knew it was coming anyway.” Ryder answered back. “The universal voices seem to all be making death threats at me for hurting Bumblebee and everyone else you love, so I decided to not give them the satisfaction-“

A gun shot when off and Ryder froze as he looked down to see that Dorothy had taken a shot at his chest slightly away from where he was holding Toxin. He looked back up at her and was shocked. She looked pretty happy with herself and walked forward to talk her sparkling from the man as he crumpled to the floor. “Yeah, I’m not giving you the satisfaction of killing yourself either, you sicko.” She froze for a second and shot him again for good measure.

Toxin was happy and nuzzling his carrier’s jacket as she started making her way out of the blast zone of the bomb Ryder made. He looked up at Dorothy and chirped happily, patting her chest and snuggling up in her arms. The woman was pretty happy too, kissing his helm and cradling him tight against her body. She looked back at the bomb and noticed something wrong. There wasn’t a timer on the bomb anywhere and nothing seemed to be counting down. There was a beep and dread filled the woman’s stomach.

“I’m not giving you a happy ending either, Dorothy.” the almost dead man replied as he detonated the bomb and the whole warehouse was engulfed in white light before disintegrating and leaving nothing behind.

✢✢✢✢✢✢

It took a while for Dorothy to figure out that she wasn’t dead, kind of. She was alive still, mostly, but everything around her looked weird.

The world was completely dark, void of anything but these little orbs of light swimming in the air around her and seemingly all staring at her. The woman stood up and looked around for some sort of sign that she was alive, but saw none around her. She tried to pinch herself in case she was dreaming, but her arm seemed to phase through her other arm when she tried. Dorothy made the conclusion that she was dead, but not dead yet maybe. It all seemed very weird to her.

The little orbs of light around her seemed to follow her as she walked, some even trying to climb her and sit on her head or shoulders. The woman didn’t mind, but she found it distracting once they started floating in front of her face. She nudged them out of the way and continued trying to walk somewhere that would make some sort of sense to her. The one thing she couldn’t believe was that she didn’t listen to her mother about how she thought being a police officer was too dangerous and get her killed at a young age.

“ _You know, you can stop walking around in circles like that. It’s not going to get you anywhere._ ” a voice boomed from the void of darkness and the woman stopped, looking around the area she was in. She looked down and didn’t know if the disembodied voice was telling the truth or not. The little orbs of light seemed to have moved away and crowded around her feet. “ _I see that most of the cybertronians seem to like you. For once, I think my brother and I made some good judgement on one thing._ ”

“Who are you?” she asked, looking around and completely confused. “And if these things are cybertronians, does that mean I’m basically in robot heaven?”

There was a dark cackle from somewhere and one half of the void seemed to glow a dark purple. “ **I told you she was a good one. At least one of my creations isn’t a screw up.** ” the other voice echoed, sounding a lot gruffer and dementing.

The other half of the void started to glow blue as the first voice seemed to growl and retaliate. “ _And at least we can agree that you’re the one who screwed up. She wasn’t supposed to die yet!_ ”

“ **Hey! I tried my best, but there’s only so much I can do to control my creators! They don’t even know I exist, so how in the name of you am I supposed to do it regularly?** ” the other voice argued. “ **I thought the comments would scare him, but humans are demented little things and Ryder just lost it at some point.** ”

“Girls, girls!” Dorothy interrupted finally, scaring some of the orbs clinging to her. “You’re both pretty! Now tell me what the heck is going on please!”

The side of the room that was glowing blue seemed to dim into one form and a blue humanoid figure appeared in front of the woman, not showing any distinct features by a pair of bird wings on his back. The other side of the room did the same thing, but the figure was purple and it had a pair of devil horns on its head. “ _This was the easiest representations of ourselves. I am Primus and I made all cybertronians that live throughout the universe._ ” the blue figure stated.

“ **And I’m Unicron, the one who created you and all the other creatures on this planet.** ” the other one answered back.

“Great.” Dorothy said, looking still upset with her situation. “I’m talking to the two biggest figures in cybertronian history and I’m dead. I’m loving the life I’m having right now. So, you gonna tell me why I’m not completely dead yet?”

“ _This idiot wasn’t supposed to get you killed yet.”_ Primus answered and glared at Unicron.

“ **I tried my best!** ” the purple figure argued back, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “ **Humans are maniacs! I can’t deliberately control them like you can. They don’t have sparks. Well, she does, but the rest of them pretty much don’t minus a select few. Like Elton John, Cade Yeager, Barack Obama, and others.** ”

“ _Wait, why Cade Yeager? Why’s he so special?_ ” Primus asked, confused on the list.

“ **You’ll see.** ” the death monger replied and smirked a bit. “ **Anyways, we wanted to let you know that you’re alive and currently inside Ratchet’s medbay in the Autobot’s new base, but you’re in a coma.** ”

“Wait, so I’m dreaming right now?” Dorothy asked looking around and groaning. “I would like to wake up and live with my family now. That would be great, you know.”

“ _We know, but there’s a slight problem with that._ ” the blue figure finally admitted, laughing nervously. “ _You see, when the explosion happened, you and Toxin were caught in the crossfire of it. Toxin is fine, a little dented, but fine. He’s currently sitting next to you in your bed and watching for any signs of you waking up. You, on the other hand, didn’t come out so okay._ ”

“ **You died and your body is covered with severe burns.** ” the purple figure told her honestly and not trying to sugar coat anything of this. “ **Primus and I decided to keep you alive long enough so you could make the decision if you want to live or not, since if you choose to live, you’ll have some minor problems to deal with.** ”

“As?” the human asked, quirking her brow and crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“ **The Allspark fragment that was in the bomb is now lodged in the back of your neck. It kinda got absorbed by your body and you might have some unnatural abilities that you’ll have to learn how to control.** ” Unicron continued. “ **You’re not cybertronian, but since you have the Allspark inside you, that means you’ll have to deal with the fact that you’re technically the mother of all cybertronians now.** ”

The woman didn’t look phased about this because she was playing this off as a dream and not believing a single thing that the two figures in front of her were saying. She in a coma and she would wake up soon with Toxin in her arms and Soundwave holding her. She was fine and the doctors probably gave her a lot of morphine to induce this dream she was having. “Right. Like I wasn’t already, but I’ll go with it.”

“ _I don’t think you believe a word of what we are saying. Ms. Haven, we’re trying to warn you that people will start hunting you down._ ” Primus continued. “ _The Decepticons will hunt you down and you have much more install for you in your life. I am asking you to please listen to us before you go back out there. You’ll have to protect the cybertronian race until the war is over. We are asking if you want to remove the Allspark fragment._ ”

“And I’ll die, right?” Dorothy asked, looking down at the orbs climbing up her legs. “I’ll die and my family will be all alone for the rest of their lives. Do you know how many carriers those kids have lost already? They need someone to take care of them. I don’t care if the Decepticons come after me, Soundwave and the kids would never hurt me and I’ve already won over Starscream. I’m plotting to murder Megatron and all of the Autobots are on my side. I might not be a cybertronian, but look at what I was able to do without the fragment.”

“ **She has a point.** ” Unicron commented.

“If I hadn’t been caught in that explosion, I would have still been working with the Autobots and my family no matter what.” the woman continued. “No fragment or not, I still would of protected the Autobots and the Decepticons I’d happen to change. I don’t want to be the mother of cybertronians. I just want to be the mother of my children and the mother figure for my friends.”

Primus smiled a bit and clapped his hands together. “ _There. I’ve removed the power to mother over cybertronians. I thought you would never agree to it. Most of the other humans who had come in contact with the Allspark choose the power to control cybertronians, sending them down the path of becoming maniacal._ ”

“Yay me for not being evil, I guess?” the human replied, a little weirded out. “Anyways, can I wake up now?”

“ **Sure. Have fun with your new life of power and robots!** ” Unicron announced nonchalantly as he cracked all his fingers. “ **Hope you don’t die before of the war that’s gonna happen on Earth in about seven years!** ”

“Wait, a what?!” Dorothy answered back, but was already poofed out of the void by the cybertronian god of destruction.

“ _Do you think she listened to us?_ ” Primus asked, yawning a bit as the orbs of blue light started to swarm him.

“ **Nope, but if she could already take care of all of the Autobots and nine of Cybertron’s most dangerous Decepticons, I think she had a good head start.** ” Unicron answered back. “ **She’ll live to see the end of the war. The fragment will help her.** ”


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy wakes up to her family being with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Toxin was crying. He had been the day since the moment he woke up and found out his carrier was in a coma. It had been two days and the sparkling hasn’t left the medical bed yet.

Soundwave was there, too. He was sitting in the chair across from the bed and asleep since late the previous night. He couldn’t really sleep since his human was on death row and he missed her. He should have stayed with her when she went to find their youngest. Maybe he could have prevented any of this from happening to her. Luckily, it seemed like all the burns she had gotten had healed in the two days she’s been in comatose. If she woke up, then Dorothy wouldn’t have to worry about anything being damaged. Ratchet send that it was very uncertain what effects the Allspark-induced bomb could have had on her and the medic said all they could do was wait.

So everyone waited. Bumblebee and Barricade was sleeping in the medbay together since the scout had to get his own wounds fixed and they didn’t want to be far from the woman. The kids were all hunkered down in one of the new hangars and not playing for once. Ravage was curled up in the corner of the room with Laserbeak and Buzzsaw hiding in the rafters. Frenzy and Rumble were sitting against the same wall that their old brother was and Ratbat was curled up on the cybertronian panther. Optimus and Ratchet were uncharacteristically over working themselves more than usual and Ironhide seemed to be holding in a lot of regret.

The little black and green sparkling was crying again, patting his carrier’s slowly rising chest as he wanted her to wake up. He nuzzled her neck and tried to get her to wake up in the ways he knew how. Nuzzling her and patting her face or chest seemed to work pretty well for the little cassette, but this time didn’t seem to do anything. Toxin looked at his carrier’s face and sniffled quietly, hugging his carrier’s face a bit and crying more. “Cah… Carri…” the little one sniffled and rubbed his face on her shoulder.

The woman exploded from the berth, knocking Toxin to the side a bit and almost throwing him off the bed. She was sitting up, eyes wide as she looked around and was panting heavily. She felt her face to realize that there was an air tube up her nose. She coughed and carefully pulled it out, having to yank out the end of the cord at the end and threw it aside. Her eyes were glowing blue for a bit before the light faded to her hazel eyes. Dorothy was up and very not dead as she was trying to regain her breath again.

Toxin, on the other hand, was a little disorientated on what just happened. He looked over at the woman and shocked out of his little processor. His carrier was alive. His carrier was alive! The little sparkling pushed himself up on his little legs, shaking a little before he clapped his servos together and hugged Dorothy’s arm, squeaking and chirping. “Carri!” he cried, the only word he had ever said.

Dorothy looked at her arm, thinking it was Ratbat for had called for her, but she was surprised to see Toxin there. She smiled, taking him into her lap and hugging him tightly as she could without dented him inwards. “Toxin! My precious baby!” she yelled, beaming down at him and kissing the top of his helm. “I’m never letting you go ever again! I’m sorry that I got you caught in that explosion, baby!”

“Carri!” Toxin said again, happy too and making his mother stop for a second.

“Is… is that your first word?” the woman asked, smiling and gently holding his helm.

The sparkling giggled and rubbed his cheek into the palm of her hand, chirping a bit. “Carri.”

The woman had tears in her eyes, which almost never happened. She picked up her child and nuzzled him to her face and was happy. Happy to be alive and she was happy that none of her friends seemed to have died during the mission. She looked up to see Soundwave sleeping in the chair in front of the bed and he was fast asleep. The woman chuckled and thought back to the dream she had. Her hand went to the back of her neck and felt a raised part of her skin that seemed to be the shape of a shattered piece of plate.

“Dammit.” she cursed, realizing that that wasn’t a medicine induced dream and she should have been listening to Primus and Unicron. All she remembered was something about her not being the mother of all cybertronians and having some sort of power. That was good, since that mean she would be the mother of Soundwave and that would be weird. Dorothy looked down at Toxin and relaxed a bit, seeing that he immediately fell asleep after she was down being happy about his first word.

“Dorothy…?” The woman looked up to see that Soundwave was waking up in his chair. She looked down to see her connected to all these machines. She sighed, disappointed that she couldn’t move but smiled happily. The silver-haired man looked up at her and was in shocked like Toxin was. He sprung up from his chair and ran to the side of the bed, capturing the woman in a hug and silently starting the cry. “You’re alive…”

“Seems like it.” she joked lightly as he nuzzled him back, kissing his cheek. The communications officer chuckled and full on kissed the human. She wrapped her free arm around Soundwave’s neck to pull him in closer and they kissed each other back and forth for a good few minutes before the fleet came barging into the room.

First was the boys and they witnessed their carrier and sire kissing each other first hand, making gagging noises and simultaneously said, “Ewww.” 

Ravage tried to him himself through the door and sighed since he wasn’t as small as the rest of his siblings. He transformed into his vehicle mode of a motorcycle and activated his holo-avatar to walk into the room. He groaned as the twin’s display and picked them up off the floor and placed them on the bed. The bird twins came flying in through the door and cuddled on the bed next to Dorothy where Ratbat did what he usually did and flew onto her face.

Soundwave looked at his family and smiled, wiping the tears away. He looked at the woman with a soft look and started unhooking the machinery from her form. He had scanned her and could see she didn’t really need any of this. Once all the machines were unhooked and turned off, the Decepticon picked her up and carried her bridal-style from the medical room to the main hangar where Optimus and the others were hanging out. Dorothy was laughing the entire time and was happy to be back with her family again.

The rest of the day seemed to go by pretty simple. Everyone hugged and surprisingly apologized for something they had done. Barricade apologized for fighting with her and Bumblebee apologized for making her angry. All the kids, except Toxin, apologized for not being able to come to her rescue or help save Toxin, and Soundwave apologized for leaving her behind. Heck, even Ironhide apologized for being a jerk. The day seemed perfect, which put Dorothy on edge, since that never happened.

Near the end of the day, Prime came in from the main hangar to speak to everyone. “We received a message from Megatron a few minutes ago.”

“What does Bucket Head want?” Ironhide asked, furrowing his brow. “Let me guess. He’s stating that we will pay for making him fail again?”

“No, this concerns Barricade and Soundwave.” Optimus continued. “Megatron has heard what occurred to you and will pardon the fact that you stand with us for the past few months. But since he needs his ranks filled again, he’s given you three days to come back to the Decepticons without penalty, meaning the children must go as well.”

“What?!” Barricade shouted, spark broken that he needed for go back. “That’s not enough time for me to do anything with Bee!”

:: _Wait, he’s leaving?!_ :: the scout cried, hugging the police car close to him. :: _Optimus, I don’t want him to leave! I want him to stay here with me!_ ::

“I’m not leaving Carrier!” Ratbat cried as he hugged Dorothy’s chest. The rest of the children started to argue as well and Soundwave looked absolutely destroyed. He just got his love back and now he had to leave her again. Dorothy was the most upset. Her family was going to disappear and she would never see them again. Maybe she could keep Toxin with her, but that would be it.

“Guys, listen to Optimus.” she finally said. “Just spend your last days with each other to the fullest and it will be fine.”

Oh and how those days went fast. Bumblebee and Barricade seemed to disappear off the map until the third day. Soundwave and the kids spent a lot of time with Dorothy and Toxin, since the little sparkling was staying with her. When the third day came, Barricade and Soundwave seemed to leave with the children early, leaving Bee and Dorothy behind with the Autobots. It was okay though, since she knew that the TIC was going to be leaving the kids here on the weekends and Barricade could easily sneak out of the base to meet up with Bee somewhere.

One morning about a week after everyone left, Dorothy’s brother came downstairs to see her in the kitchen baking some sort of pie. He looked on the counter to see a metallic sword that was black with green accents. The woman seemed to pay no mind to it and only smiled when Darren came in. “Morning, brother of mine.”

“Morning.” he replied, sitting down at the table. “Why are you baking?”

“I have people coming over this weekend.” she replied, placing the unbaked pie in the oven. She turned around and went to start washing the stuff she had used to make the pie in the sink.

Her brother quirked a brow when he saw an oddly shaped mark on the back of her neck. “I’ve never noticed that you had a birth mark on the back of your neck. Was it always there?”

“Yeah. Pretty cool hun?” Dorothy answered, eyes flashing blue for a second. “I guess everyone is a little more than meets the eye.”  


The End…?


End file.
